Good morning. We're covering the death of Jimmy Carter and a plane crash in South Korea. Plus: Falun Gong's money engine.
Jimmy Carter has died at 100Jimmy Carter, who from 1977 to 1981 served as the 39th president of the U.S., died yesterday at his home in Plains, Ga. At 100, he was the longest-living president in American history. Here's our obituary. Carter was a lifelong farmer who worked with his hands building houses for the poor well into his 90s. He grew up on a peanut farm and served in the Navy before serving as governor of Georgia. In 1976, with Walter Mondale as his running mate, he secured the presidency, winning the popular vote with 50.1 percent and securing 297 electoral votes. (Read about a life that started in Georgia and expanded to the world.) His death sets the stage for the first presidential funeral since 2018. Such occasions traditionally prompt a cease-fire in America's fractious political wars, as the nation's leaders pause to remember and bid farewell to one of their own. Post-presidential career: Carter lost his bid for re-election to Ronald Reagan and left office as one of the most unpopular commanders in chief in modern times. But rather than vanish from view or focus on moneymaking, he established the Carter Center to promote peace, fight disease and combat social inequality, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. For more:
179 killed in South Korea plane crashA passenger plane crashed while landing at an airport in South Korea yesterday morning, killing 179 of the 181 people onboard, officials said. It was the worst aviation disaster involving a South Korean airline in almost three decades. The plane, a Boeing 737-800, was operated by Jeju Air and had taken off from Bangkok. It was landing at Muan International Airport, in southwest South Korea, when it crashed around 9 a.m. local time. Two crew members were rescued from the aircraft's tail section, but by yesterday evening all other passengers and crew had been confirmed dead. Officials were investigating what caused the tragedy, including why the plane's landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned, whether birds had struck the jet and if bad weather had been a factor. What's next: The crash is the first major test for Choi Sang-mok, South Korea's acting president, who was appointed interim leader on Friday after the previous acting president was impeached. He said that the country would observe a weeklong mourning period.
Israel faces intensifying Houthi attacksThe Houthis, the Iranian-backed militia that is an ally to Hamas and that controls much of northern Yemen, have recently escalated a campaign against Israel. For the past week, the group has launched ballistic missiles toward the country almost nightly, setting off sirens and sending Israelis fleeing into bomb shelters in their pajamas. Israel is struggling to stop those attacks, analysts say, because of a lack of precise intelligence on the whereabouts of the group's leaders and weapons stores. The militia appeared undeterred even after Israel's war planes on Thursday carried out their fourth and most brazen round of retaliatory strikes in Yemen. Hezbollah: Over decades, Israeli intelligence compiled methodical intelligence on the Lebanese militia, culminating in the assassination of its feared leader in September. Read more about how Israeli spies penetrated the group. Related:
Has a thirst for craft beer finally run dry? After decades of meteoric success, this year was the first time since 2005 that more breweries closed than opened in the U.S., amid a general decline in beer drinking. Lives lived: Michel del Castillo, a Franco-Spanish writer who wrote wrenching accounts of a childhood spent in World War II concentration camps, died on Dec. 17 at 91.
How Shen Yun tapped religious fervor to make millionsOver the past decade, the dance group Shen Yun Performing Arts has made money at a staggering rate. By the end of last year, it had more than a quarter of a billion dollars, an extraordinary sum for a nonprofit dance group from Orange County, N.Y. Shen Yun is operated by Falun Gong, the persecuted Chinese religious movement, and its success flows in part from its ability to pack venues worldwide — while exploiting young, low-paid performers with little regard for their health or well-being. But it is also a token of the power that Falun Gong's founder, Li Hongzhi, has wielded over his followers. Read more here. We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.
Cook: This luxurious sheet-pan paneer tikka comes together in under 30 minutes. Watch: Let Pamela Anderson pick your next movie. Resolve: Try these five approaches to eating and drinking in 2025. Read: Here are 20 new books we're looking forward to in January. Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today's Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here. That's it for today's briefing. Have a great Monday. — Natasha Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
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