Jimmy Carter, his hometown of Plains celebrate the 39th president's 100th birthday
Atlanta (AP): Jimmy Carter reached his 100th birthday Tuesday, the first time an American president has lived a full century and the latest milestone in a life that took the son of a Depression-era farmer to the White House and across the world as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian and advocate for democracy.
Living the last 19 months in home hospice care in Plains, the Georgia Democrat and 39th president has continued to defy expectations, just as he did through a remarkable rise from his family peanut farming and warehouse business to the world stage. He served one presidential term from 1977 to 1981 and then worked more than four decades leading The Carter Centre, which he and his wife Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope.”
“Not everybody gets 100 years on this earth, and when somebody does, and when they use that time to do so much good for so many people, it's worth celebrating," Jason Carter, the former president's grandson and chair of The Carter Centre governing board, said in an interview.
“These last few months, 19 months, now that he's been in hospice, it's been a chance for our family to reflect,” he continued, “and then for the rest of the country and the world to really reflect on him. That's been a really gratifying time.”
James Earl Carter Jr. was born October 1, 1924 in Plains, where he has lived more than 80 of his 100 years. He is expected to mark his birthday in the same one-storey home he and Rosalynn built in the early 1960s — before his first election to the Georgia state Senate. The former first lady, who was also born in Plains, died last November at 96.
President Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter's 1976 campaign, praised his longtime friend for an “unwavering belief in the power of human goodness.”
“You've always been a moral force for our nation and the world (and) a beloved friend to Jill and me and our family,” the 81-year-old president tells Carter in a tribute video filmed in front of Carter's presidential portrait at the White House.
Outside the North Portico, the Bidens are placing a display of large lettering declaring “Happy Birthday President Carter” and the number 100. Carter has asked Biden to eulogise him at his state funeral when the time comes.
The Carter Centre on September 17 hosted a musical gala in Atlanta to celebrate the former president with a range of genres and artists, including some who campaigned with him in 1976. The event raised more than USD 1.2 million for the centre's programmes and will be broadcast Tuesday evening on Georgia Public Broadcasting.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, Habitat for Humanity volunteers are honouring Carter with a five-day effort to build 30 houses. The Carters became top ambassadors for the international organisation after leaving the White House and hosted annual building projects into their 90s. Carter survived a cancer diagnosis and treatment in his early 90s, then several falls and a hip replacement in his mid-90s before announcing at 98 that he would enter hospice care.
Townspeople in Plains planned another concert Tuesday evening.
The last time Jimmy Carter was seen publicly was nearly a year ago, using a reclining wheelchair to attend his wife's two funeral services. Visibly diminished and silent, he was joined on the front row of Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta by the couple's four children, every living former first lady, Biden and his wife Jill and former President Bill Clinton. A day later, Carter joined his extended family and parishioners at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where the former president taught Sunday School for decades.
Jason Carter said the 100th birthday celebrations were not something the family expected to see once his grandmother died. The former president's hospital bed had been set up in the same room so he could see his wife of 77 years and talk to her in her final days and hours.
“We frankly didn't think he was going to go on much longer,” Jason Cater said. “But it's a faith journey for him, and he's really given himself over to what he feels is God's plan. He knows he's not in charge. But in these last few months, especially, he has gotten a lot more engaged in world events, a lot more engaged in politics, a lot more, just engaged, emotionally, with all of us.”
Jason Carter said the centenarian president, born only four years after women were granted the constitutional right to vote and four decades before Black women won ballot access, is eager to cast his 2024 presidential ballot — for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat who would become the first woman, second Black person and first person of south Asian descent to reach the Oval Office.
“He, like a lot of us, was incredibly gratified by his friend Joe Biden's courageous choice to pass the torch,” the younger Carter said. “You know, my grandfather and The Carter Centre have observed more than 100 elections in 40 other countries, right? So, he knows how rare it is for somebody who's a sitting president to give up power in any context.”
Jason Carter continued, “When we started asking him about his 100th birthday, he said he was excited to vote for Kamala Harris.”
Early voting in Georgia begins October 15, two weeks into Carter's 101st year.
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None of Adani portfolio companies subject to any legal case: Group CFO on promoter indictment in US
New Delhi, Nov 23: None of Adani group portfolio companies, comprising 11 listed firms, have been accused of any wrongdoing, conglomerate's CFO Jugeshinder Robbie Singh said on founder and chairman Gautam Adani's indictment on bribery charges in the US.
In a post on X, Singh said the group would make a detailed comment on the US indictment once it gets counsel approvals.
Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, allegedly agreed to pay about USD 265 million in bribes to Indian government officials between approximately 2020 and 2024 to obtain lucrative solar energy supply contracts on terms that were expected to yield USD 2 billion of profit over 20 years, according to an indictment unsealed in a New York court on Wednesday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of the US has also charged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global, for "conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme".
"There is a lot of news and reports that will try to pick unrelated items and create a headline. My humble request is that we will respond in the fullness of time once we review in detail the matter as presented in the legal filing," Singh said.
He hastened to add that no court has ruled on the indictment, and as outlined by lawyers of the US Department of Justice, these are "allegations and the accused have a presumption of innocence".
The CFO, who was the first line of defence when US short-seller Hindenburg Research had accused the ports-to-power conglomerate of fraud in January 2023, said the group became aware of the "specificity" of the US indictment against founder and chairman Gautam Adani two days ago.
"We were aware that something is afoot (and in February 2024 144a offering circular in Risk Factors we disclosed as such. This was the first public issuance of any of our portfolio companies or their subsidiaries or joint venture companies after our annual results of 31st March 2023)," he said.
He, however, did not state what the company had disclosed in February 2024.
Adani Group, he said, has a portfolio of 11 public companies and "none are subject to indictment (i.e. defendants in any legal proceedings in the recent DOJ lawyer filings to a court in NYC)".
"None of the issuers (i.e. companies in our portfolio or specific issuers that are subsidiaries of the public companies) are accused of any wrongdoing in the said legal filing," he said.
The indictment "relates to one contract of Adani Green, which is roughly 10 per cent of overall business of Adani Green (there is a lot more precise and comprehensive detail of this which we will elaborate in an appropriate forum)," he said.
The statement comes two days after Gautam Adani was charged by US prosecutors over his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay USD 265 million (about RS 2,200 crore) bribes to Indian officials to secure solar energy contracts. The conglomerate has denied the allegations, calling them baseless, and announced plans to seek legal recourse.
The Adani Family has 11 listed entities on the Indian stock exchanges - flagship incubator Adani Enterprises Ltd, electricity producer Adani Power Ltd, ports company Adani Ports & SEZ, power transmission firm Adani Energy Solutions Limited, renewable arm Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), city gas distributor Adani Total Gas Ltd, commodities firm Adani Wilmar Ltd, media firm New Delhi Television Ltd and cement companies Ambuja Cements Limited, ACC Ltd, and Sanghi Industries Ltd.
"There is a lot of news and reports that will try to pick unrelated items and create a headline. My humble request is that we will respond in the fullness of time once we review in detail the matter as presented in the legal filing (Please note that no court has ruled on this and as outlined by lawyers of DOJ these are 'allegations and accused have a presumption of innocence'). We will make a more detailed comment once we get counsel approvals to discuss what we can in public on a matter that is sub-judice," he added.
