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World leaders react to the death of former President Jimmy Carter

Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton waving to the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton penned tributes for their late predecessor, Jimmy Carter on Sunday.

Alex Wong via Getty Images

  • Former President Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100.
  • Foreign and business leaders celebrated Carter's humanitarian work.
  • President-elect Donald Trump said the world owes Carter "a debt of gratitude."

Former President Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100. World leaders responded with an outpouring of support, celebrating Carter's legacy as a humanitarian.

The Georgia peanut farmer turned politician served as president from 1977 to 1981. But he is perhaps most known for his humanitarian work after leaving the White House.

Carter championed human rights and pushed for peace in various corners of the world. In 1982, he founded The Carter Center to focus on such issues.

In 2002, Carter received a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to promote peace and human rights. Carter also played an active role with Habitat for Humanity until the end of his life.

"My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love," Carter's son, Chip, said in a statement via The Carter Center on Sunday.

Biden: Carter was "a man of principle, faith, and humility"

President Joe Biden said on Sunday that he would order a state funeral in Washington for Carter.

"Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian," Biden said in a statement.

"With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us," Biden added. "He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe."

Biden said that the love Carter shared with his late wife, Rosalynn Carter, was "the definition of partnership" and that their leadership was "the definition of patriotism."

Trump: "We all owe him a debt of gratitude"

President-elect Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Carter's presidency "came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude."

"While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for," Trump said in a subsequent post.

Trump had earlier criticized Carter's decision to hand over control of the Panama Canal to Panama, saying in a Truth Social Post on December 21 that his predecessor had "foolishly gave it away."

The president-elect recently accused Panama of charging US vessels "exorbitant prices" and threatened to retake control of the canal.

Former presidents and lawmakers tout Carter's post-presidential record

Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama said in a statement on Sunday that Carter had "the longest and most impactful post-presidency in American history."

"Elected in the shadow of Watergate, Jimmy Carter promised voters that he would always tell the truth," the Obamas said.

"And he did — advocating for the public good, consequences be damned. He believed some things were more important than reelection — things like integrity, respect, and compassion," the statement added.

President Carter taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from this remarkable man. https://t.co/dZHL0Nu0Tj

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 29, 2024

Former President George W. Bush said in his statement that Carter was a "man of deeply held convictions" who "set an example of service that will inspire Americans for generations."

"President Carter dignified the office. And his efforts to leave behind a better world didn't end with the presidency," Bush said.

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that Carter had "worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world."

"I will always be proud to have presented the Medal of Freedom to him and Rosalynn in 1999, and to have worked with him in the years after he left the White House," Bill Clinton said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X that Carter led an "extraordinary life" that touched countless people's lives through his vision and generosity.

As we remember President Carter's extraordinary life, we also honor the countless lives he touched through his vision and generosity.

My thoughts are with the Carter family and all those mourning this incredible man.

May his memory be a blessing and an enduring reminder of what… pic.twitter.com/NdDU43WTGk

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 29, 2024

Sen. Bernie Sanders said on X that Carter would be remembered as a "decent, honest and down-to-earth man" for both his time as president and his later humanitarian work.

"He will be sorely missed," Sanders wrote.

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg shared a tribute to the former president on X, writing that Carter's "leadership, intellect, and moral example ennobled our country, during and ever since his presidency."

President and Mrs. Carter were also extraordinarily gracious and kind to Chasten and me, receiving us warmly at their home and making us feel like friends even as we sat amazed by their presence and grace. pic.twitter.com/iZe4BDULht

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) December 29, 2024

Foreign politicians and business leaders hail Carter's peacemaking efforts

On X, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared a photo of the former president wearing a tool belt in front of a construction site with the message: "Today, we honor President Carter's lifetime of service and his commitment to leaving the world better than he found it. May he rest in peace."

Today, we honor President Carter’s lifetime of service and his commitment to leaving the world better than he found it. May he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/cXl99kT7lr

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) December 29, 2024

Melinda French Gates said in her tribute that Carter was her hero. The philanthropist said she knew Carter best as a "global health advocate" who took on "diseases that impact the world's poorest people, like Guinea worm disease."

"When President Carter left office, there were more than 3.5 million cases of this painful, debilitating disease around the world each year. This year, thanks in no small part to the work of the Carter Center, that number was down to single digits," French Gates wrote.

"One of my favorite teachings says: 'To know that even one life has breathed easier because you lived, this is to have succeeded.' We honor President Carter by remembering that because of him, life is healthier, better, and safer not just for one life, but for millions," she continued.

Carter's death prompted tributes from foreign leaders such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"He was a leader who served during a time when Ukraine was not yet independent, yet his heart stood firmly with us in our ongoing fight for freedom," Zelenskyy said of Carter in his X post.

"We deeply appreciate his steadfast commitment to Christian faith and democratic values, as well as his unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia's unprovoked aggression," he added.

Very sorry to hear of President Carter’s passing. I pay tribute to his decades of selfless public service.

My thoughts are with his family and friends at this time. pic.twitter.com/IaKmZcteb1

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) December 29, 2024

"Jimmy Carter's legacy is one of compassion, kindness, empathy, and hard work. He served others both at home and around the world his entire life — and he loved doing it," Trudeau wrote on X. "He was always thoughtful and generous with his advice to me."

King Charles — one of the few living figures from Carter's presidency still active in public life — also posted a tribute.

A condolence message from The King to President Biden and the American people following the death of former US President Jimmy Carter. pic.twitter.com/EIZqj7MZeb

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) December 29, 2024

In the note, Charles said Carter's "dedication and humility served as an inspiration."

He nodded to Carter's 1977 visit to the UK, where Charles appeared in the background of this photo (top left, you can see his head) showing Carter meeting with G7 leaders and Queen Elizabeth II.

A group of world leaders, including President Jimmy Carter, meet in London in 1977.
World leaders at a G7 summit in London in 1977. Pictured (left to right) are Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Prince Charles (in the far background), Princess Margaret, Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, British Prime Minister James Callaghan, French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, US President Jimmy Carter, Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, and West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

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TikTok owner ByteDance is now China's biggest buyer of Nvidia chips as it seeks to lead AI race, report says

Bytedance
TikTok owner ByteDance is now the biggest buyer of Nvidia AI chips in China.

Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

  • US regulations bar China from directly acquiring Nvidia's powerful H100 GPUs.
  • That hasn't stopped ByteDance from becoming Nvidia's largest buyer in China.
  • The company is also working around the export ban by increasing computing capacity outside China.

ByteDance is the biggest buyer of Nvidia's AI chips inside China as the TikTok owner seeks to establish itself in the artificial intelligence sector, the Financial Times reported.

A US export ban introduced in 2022 restricts China from acquiring Nvidia's more advanced GPUs. One is the H100 — a coveted chip that powers data-hungry AI models and has helped turn Nvidia into a $3 trillion company amid the global AI boom.

The ban limits China to Nvidia's less powerful H20 chip. In May, Chinese government officials asked local tech companies to buy domestic-made chips instead.

Despite the US regulation and China's pleas, ByteDance has emerged as Nvidia's largest buyer of AI chips, sources who spoke to FT said. One source told the publication that ByteDance is Nvidia's largest customer in Asia.

The report did not disclose a figure, but The Information reported in September that the TikTok parent company placed orders for more than 200,000 Nvidia H20s this year.

Bytedance appears to be seeking a workaround to the US ban to get its hands on Nvidia's H100 and Blackwell chips by increasing computing capacity outside of China, including plans for new data centers in Malaysia, sources familiar with the matter told the FT.

ByteDance did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider on Sunday.

The TikTok owner's push to acquire more Nvidia chips is part of the company's broader effort to establish itself as an AI powerhouse.

The company has siphoned top engineers from rival companies and startups, according to the FT. In 2021, the company indicated plans to attract overseas AI talent, Business Insider reported.

Bytedance is also joining a chorus of Big Tech companies looking to disrupt Nvidia's dominance by developing its own chip. Sources familiar with the matter told the FT that the company is building an AI chip for machine learning modeled after Google's Tensor Processing Unit.

Earlier this year, ByteDance unveiled a tool not available to the public called StreamVoice. This tool allows users to change their voice into another person, such as a celebrity, with AI. The company also launched Cici AI, an AI-powered chat assistant that relies on OpenAI's GPT.

Amid its push to become a formidable player in the AI race, ByteDance still faces major hurdles, including a slowed user growth rate on TikTok and an uncertain future in the US, where an appeals court recently upheld a ban on the short-form video platform. Judges concluded that ByteDance must sell TikTok to avoid being banned from app stores.

Several ultrawealthy investors have offered to buy the platform, including Kevin O'Leary of "Shark Tank," former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, and billionaire former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.

"We don't want to see it banned," McCourt said on Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation. "I'd add that President-elect Trump has also said he doesn't want to see it banned. So now, let's talk about the sale."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Search for suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting shows the surveillance state reaches only so far

Police inspect the scene where insurance executive Brian Thompson was killed in Manhattan.
Police inspect the scene where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed in Manhattan.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

  • A gunman fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4 in New York City.
  • The NYPD launched a manhunt but has so far failed to capture the suspect.
  • The suspect's evasion has revealed holes in surveillance, but police say it's just a matter of time.

The Manhattan shooting Wednesday of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was captured by a surveillance camera and shared on social media, where the footage racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Authorities later released full-color surveillance images of the gunman, including one that showed him with his mask pulled down and smiling.

Yet, the gunman is still at large after four days despite a citywide manhunt led by the largest metropolitan police force in the country. On Friday, authorities told CNN they believed the gunman had managed to leave the city by bus.

The gunman's ability to evade capture so far has highlighted the limits of surveillance, even in a city like New York, where authorities have access to thousands of cameras that can track millions of people daily.

"You have got to remember, he was running around a city of 9 million people," Joseph Giacolone, a former NYPD Sergeant and professor at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice, told Business Insider. "You know, it's not that easy to pick somebody up the street, especially if they're all buttoned up."

New York City is under constant surveillance by police and residents

After the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, George W. Bush's administration expanded surveillance across the country.

Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Act that November, creating the Transportation Security Administration. That same year, the Bush administration ushered in the USA Patriot Act, which expanded law enforcement's ability to use surveillance.

The US Congress later created the Department of Homeland Security. The department launched a nationwide campaign — "If You See Something, Say Something" — encouraging citizens to report suspicious activity to law enforcement to prevent terrorism and other criminal acts.

Since then, the emphasis on surveillance and security has spread nationwide, including in New York City, where cameras are now everywhere.

Amnesty International, a human rights organization, said there were over 25,500 surveillance cameras in New York City in a 2022 report. The NYPD has used images from the ubiquitous cameras to track crimes and for use in facial recognition software.

The NYPD's "Facial Identification Section" received 9,850 requests for comparison and returned 2,510 possible matches in 2019 — a roughly 25% match rate. The agency said it's unaware of cases in NYC in which a person was falsely arrested due to a facial recognition match.

This May, New York City Mayor Eric Adams launched a pilot program focused on using technology to increase public safety. The "community-based security camera integration platform" will allow businesses to "voluntarily share information in real-time with the NYPD through existing closed-circuit television cameras," according to a press release.

The emergence of Amazon's Ring cameras and smartphones has added another layer of monitoring. In 2022, the NYPD said it would join and monitor the Neighbors app, where residents share information on crime and safety.

"While the NYPD will not monitor the app around the clock, it will have the capacity to view, post and respond to crime- and safety-related information posted publicly by the users of the app," a press release said.

The NYPD is "processing a tremendous amount of evidence"

Commissioner Jessica Tisch told CNN on Friday that the department had already collected "lots of forensic evidence" and was "processing a tremendous amount of evidence in this case."

She said there is also a "massive camera canvass" of the suspect's movements through the city.

Additionally, a law enforcement official told CNN that investigators found a backpack in Central Park they believe belonged to the suspect but had not officially confirmed where it came from. Authorities took the backpack for tests.

Giacolone told BI that while the shooting suspect has evaded capture for now, it will be difficult for him to elude authorities as they collect more evidence. The NYPD will be looking for what he called "the three horsemen of forensics" to solve the case, which are video surveillance, cellphone records, and internet records.

"I've been on these investigations," Giacolone said. "They know what hole he crawled out of, what hole he went back into. As far as I'm concerned, they already know who he is. They just got to find him."

Read the original article on Business Insider

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