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Former US president Jimmy Carter dies aged 100

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Former US president Jimmy Carter dies aged 100

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Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president who later won the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, has died at the age of 100, the Carter Center said on Sunday.

He died peacefully on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family, the human rights organisation he founded said in a statement.

Carter was the longest-living president in US history, having celebrated his 100th birthday on October 1 this year.

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His death came over a year after his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, passed away in November 2023, and more than a year and a half after the ailing former president entered hospice care, in February 2023.

“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” Chip Carter, the former president’s son, said on Sunday.

The announcement came just weeks before Donald Trump is due to begin his second term in the White House. The Carter Center said in October that Carter, a life-long Democrat, had cast his mail-in ballot for Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent.

US President Joe Biden joined a flood of tributes, saying Carter “saved, lifted and changed the lives of people all across the globe”.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that “the challenges Jimmy faced as President 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.”

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Carter’s presidency was marred by spiralling inflation and a hostage crisis in Iran. The Democrat lost re-election to Republican Ronald Reagan in a landslide in 1980.

In the decades after he left office, however, Carter won widespread admiration for his extensive humanitarian work at home and abroad. He founded the Carter Center, the influential pro-democracy and human rights organisation, and became one of the most prominent volunteers for Habitat for Humanity, the affordable housing charity.

Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for undertaking peace negotiations, campaigning for human rights and working for social welfare”.

Jimmy Carter, right, after a news conference in which he announced the lifting of a travel ban on Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea and Cambodia in March 1977 © AP

Carter faded from public view in the years leading up to his death. He visited Washington in 2018 to attend the state funeral of George HW Bush and endorsed Biden for president in 2020 with an audio message that was played at the Democratic National Convention.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the Carters at their home in 2021. The Bidens attended a memorial service for Rosalynn Carter, alongside the former president, at Emory University in Atlanta in November 2023.

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The Carter Center said in February 2023 that “after a series of short hospital stays”, the former president had decided to forgo medical treatment and enter hospice treatment at home. Carter had undergone cancer treatment and suffered several falls in recent years.

In May 2024, Jason Carter said his grandfather was “really physically limited” and “coming to the end”. He also nodded to the former president’s religious convictions, saying: “There’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end and I think he has been there in that space.”

After losing his re-election bid in 1980, Carter returned to a modest, two-bedroom ranch house in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where the local population is about 800 people, and he taught Sunday school at the local church well into his 90s.

Both the former president and his wife were born and raised in Plains.

Carter will be buried in a private ceremony in the small town — about 150 miles south of Atlanta — after a state funeral in Washington and a public event in Atlanta, the Carter Center said.

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Video: How the White House Press Briefing Is Changing

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Video: How the White House Press Briefing Is Changing

The Trump administration is considering taking control of the seating in the White House press briefing room from the independent White House Correspondents’ Association. Ashley Wu, a graphics reporter for The New York Times, explains why this matters and notes how questions at the briefings have already started to change.

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Nvidia to take $5.5bn hit as US clamps down on exports of AI chips to China

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Nvidia to take .5bn hit as US clamps down on exports of AI chips to China

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Donald Trump’s administration is clamping down on Nvidia’s ability to sell artificial intelligence chips to China, sending the Silicon Valley giant’s shares sliding in pre-market trading and hitting Wall Street tech stocks.

Nvidia revealed new US controls on American chipmakers’ sales to China in a late-night regulatory filing on Tuesday, in which it said it expected to take a $5.5bn earnings hit as a result.

The curbs were subsequently confirmed by the commerce department, marking another escalation in Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing.

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The chipmaker said its H20 chip, which is already tailored to comply with Joe Biden-era export controls that prevent the sale of its most powerful chips in China, would now require a special licence to be sold to Chinese customers.

It is still unclear how many such licences will be granted, but Nvidia said it would take a $5.5bn charge in the quarter to April 27 related to H20 chips for “inventory, purchase commitments, and related reserves”.

Analysts estimate Nvidia will generate about $17bn in sales to Chinese customers in the current financial year.

Nvidia’s shares fell 7 per cent in pre-market trading on Wednesday, while futures tracking the tech-focused Nasdaq 100 index were down more than 2 per cent.

Shares in Dutch chipmaking equipment company ASML sank 6 per cent after orders of its machines fell short of expectations. Shares in US semiconductor group AMD also fell almost 6 per cent in pre-market trading.

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Stocks in Hong Kong also fell, led by leading AI chip buyers Alibaba, down almost 4 per cent, Baidu and Tencent, which both fell about 2 per cent.

The new US chip controls mark the latest salvo in a spiralling trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Earlier this month, the Trump administration imposed additional tariffs of 145 per cent on China, with a reprieve for some consumer electronics. Beijing matched the additional duties in retaliation.

The shortage of domestic chip suppliers in China able to build products to rival those of Nvidia had meant its tech companies were flocking to buy H20s, even in the face of Beijing’s steep import duties.

But that could change under the new US controls. Since the H20 chip is less powerful than those Nvidia can sell outside China, customers in the rest of the world may also be unwilling to buy up stock that cannot be sold there.

Bernstein analysts on Tuesday said the H20 accounted for about $12bn of Nvidia’s $17bn revenues in China over the past year. They added that there was still a lack of clarity on whether licences might be granted, or whether it amounted to a full “wipeout” of the product line.

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Nvidia said it was notified of the new controls on April 9 and was told on Monday that the licence requirement for H20 and any similar chips “will be in effect for the indefinite future”.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt urged China to cut a new trade deal with the US, saying, “the ball is in China’s court”.

The US commerce department later confirmed it was issuing new export licensing requirements for the H20, as well as AMD’s MI308 and equivalent chips. It said it was “acting on the president’s directive to safeguard our national and economic security”.

The US move underscores Nvidia’s exposure to geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing. The chip designer has been at the heart of the AI boom, and briefly last year became the world’s most valuable company.

On Monday, the Trump administration launched a national security probe that could lead to new tariffs on semiconductors, as it holds off from immediately applying steeper levies on chips.

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Nvidia’s chips are manufactured in Taiwan, so they could be subject to import duties when sold to US-based customers.

The company said on Monday it would spend up to half a trillion dollars on US AI infrastructure over the next four years through partnerships with companies including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Foxconn. The Financial Times had first reported on its investment plans.

Nvidia introduced its China-focused H20 processors last year after the Biden administration imposed export controls on its chips. They are less powerful than its top range of graphics processing units, or GPUs, coveted by Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta and Amazon.

Despite its reduced performance, the H20 has still seen solid demand in China. But Beijing has taken steps to encourage local tech companies to use homegrown chips from companies such as Huawei, and could freeze out Nvidia’s products with new energy efficiency rules.

Video: Nvidia’s rise in the age of AI | FT Film
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Harvard just stood up to Trump. How long can it last?

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Harvard just stood up to Trump. How long can it last?
Robin Levinson-King and Mike Wendling

BBC News

Watch: ‘It’s not right’ – Students react to Trump freezing Harvard’s federal funding

Harvard University says it will not acquiesce to US President Donald Trump’s demands – federal funding or no.

“No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach,” Harvard’s president Alan Garber said in a letter posted on the university’s website.

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Not long after Harvard refused to agree to the White House’s sweeping list of demands – which included directions on how to govern, hire and teach – the Trump administration froze $2.2bn (£1.7bn) of federal funds to the institution.

Many students and alumni lauded the university’s decision to stand its ground, despite the consequences. Former President Barack Obama, an alumnus himself, called Trump’s move “ham-handed” and praised Harvard as “an example for other higher-ed institutions”.

But with billions in the balance, the battle for the higher ground may just be the opening salvo in a war of attrition between the federal government and higher education.

Trump’s attacks on Harvard are not isolated – the government’s antisemitism task force has identified at least 60 universities for review.

At issue, the government says, is last year’s pro-Palestinian campus protests, which wracked campuses across the country, and which the Trump administration says contributed to the harassment of Jewish students.

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Last month, Columbia University agreed to many of the administration’s demands in the wake of the protests – after the government cut $400m in funding.

Harvard, too, made concessions. It agreed to engage with the administration’s task force to combat antisemitism. The school dismissed the leaders of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies and suspended its Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative over accusations of anti-Israel bias.

And in January, Harvard settled two lawsuits brought by Jewish students alleging antisemitism. It did not admit any wrongdoing, and said the settlement showed its commitment to supporting its Jewish students and staff.

But the university drew the line at the White House’s list of demands on Friday.

Reuters Aerial shot of a brick buildings at Harvard UniversityReuters

Harvard student Sa’maia Evans, who is an activist and member of the university’s African and African American Resistance Organization, said the university’s decision to take a stand was a long time coming.

“Harvard will only do that of which it is held accountable to,” she told the BBC. She pointed to campus protests in the past few weeks – and the widespread criticism of Columbia’s agreement with the Trump administration – as helping to put pressure on university officials.

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“They know the public – they would experience public backlash” if they capitulated, Ms Evans said.

“It would be atypical (for) Harvard to do anything outside of what would be in its own interest.”

With a $53.2bn endowment – a figure that is larger than the GDP of some small countries – Harvard is uniquely able to weather the storm. But experts say it is still left in a crunch.

“Most policymakers think of endowments as a chequing account, a debit card where you can withdraw money and use it for any purpose,” said Steven Bloom, the spokesperson for American Council on Education. “But it’s not.”

While Harvard’s endowment is eye-popping, it says 70% of the money is earmarked for specific projects – which is typical for educational endowments, according to Mr Bloom.

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Harvard has to spend the money the way the donors have directed, or it risks legal liability.

And Harvard’s expenses are huge – its 2024 operating budget was $6.4bn. About a third of that was funded by the endowment – with 16% coming from the federal government, often to help with things that are supposed to create good for the whole of the US, such as biomedical research.

Mr Bloom said the golden rule for endowment finance was that universities should not spend more than 5% of their total endowment each year. Making up for a $2bn loss means the school will need to boost its endowment by $40bn.

“You can’t find 40 billion dollars under a rock,” Mr Bloom said.

And that pain will only increase if Trump is able to make good on his threat to remove Harvard’s tax-exempt status. That status helps the school avoid paying taxes on its investments and properties. Harvard has campuses all over the Greater Boston area, and is estimated by Bloomberg to have saved $158m on its property tax bills in 2023.

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The realities of the situation have made some students sceptical about how long it can go on.

“There’s more the government can do if it wants to attack Harvard, and I’m not optimistic that it’s going to stop after cutting $2.2 billion,” Matthew Tobin, the academic representative on Harvard’s student council.

Mr Tobin said the idea that the Trump administration was making these demands to help Harvard is “malarkey”.

“Its a total bad-faith attack,” he told the BBC. “The funding cuts have to do with Trump attacking an institution that he views as liberal, and wanting to exercise more control over what people teach and how students learn and think.”

With addition reporting from Isabella Bull in Boston

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