Jimmy Carter was the compassionate, honourable, peacemaker America needed

Published

12 months ago

December 29, 2024

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In the late 1970s, America was not in a good place; reeling from a war and from Watergate.

Then came a man called Jimmy.

“Jimmy who?” the nation asked.

And so it was that the nation was somewhat dismissive when a peanut farmer called Jimmy Carter announced a run for the White House.

Beyond his home state of Georgia, where he had served as governor, James Earl Carter Jr was not well known.

But it would turn out, Jimmy Carter was just what 1970s America needed.

After the political turmoil of Nixon and Watergate and the quagmire of the Vietnam War, America craved stability, calm and integrity.

The 39th president of the United States did not provide the drama of those who came before him or those who would follow him.

Yet over a remarkably long life, punctuated by a short presidency, Jimmy Carter built a considerable legacy deserving of considerable reflection.

Carter the healer

“Compassionate”, “honourable”, a “peacemaker”, a “healer”.

They are words so often used to describe the American leader who lived a life longer than any other.

Late 1970s America was a nation reeling from the Watergate scandal and the disgraced presidency of Richard Nixon followed by the accidental presidency of Gerald Ford.

The wider backdrop was a long war in Vietnam, ending in a humiliating defeat and a fresh blot in a proud nation’s history.

Enter Jimmy Carter, 52-years-old; five feet seven inches – unassuming and unimposing both physically and in character.

Peanut farmer, turned submariner, turned politician; he was a man of the people whose core instinct was that a government is only as good as its people.

His healing qualities, clearly threaded through his life, were displayed on day one of his presidency.

In a bold move he granted unconditional pardons to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the Vietnam War draft.

He had said the pardon was needed “to heal our country after the Vietnam War”.

Of the bitter divisions sparked by the war, he said: “We can now agree to respect those differences and to forget them.”

He pioneered a bold vision for compassionate centre-left politics which would, many years later, be emulated by presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden.

Yet Jimmy Carter would survive only one term as president.

In those four years he faced huge challenges – an energy crisis, Soviet aggression and Iran – themes which, it turns out, endure.

A childhood which shaped a presidency

Jimmy Carter was born where he died, in the town of Plains, Georgia on 1 October 1924.

His childhood unquestionably moulded the person and politician he would become.

1930s Georgia was a place of segregation. Two Americas existed side by side, separated by racism.

But Carter’s mother, a nurse, boldly ignored the state’s segregation laws, and so young Jimmy’s upbringing was one of coexistence in a place where there was none.

Decades later Carter would tell American talk show host Oprah Winfrey how every one of his childhood friends was black.

It was an experience which moulded his mind and would allow him to help change history decades later.

Young Jimmy Carter joined the Navy, serving as a submariner – a role that surely takes a particular type of character.

His father’s death in 1953 brought him back to Georgia where he ran the family peanut farm.

But politics beckoned. It was race and racism which lured Carter to activism with the Democratic Party.

By the 1960s it would propel him to the state senate and, by 1970, to the top job in Georgia – governor.

The long-shot president

He was the dark horse for president; a long-shot candidate who made it all the way.

His childhood experiences of coexistence over division were threaded through his term in office and led to significant yet oft-forgotten achievements.

President Carter recognised and valued the power of American leadership in the protection of human rights.

Global achievements

It was his blunt message to the white rulers in South Africa which helped to precipitate the end of Apartheid and a peaceful coexistence many years later.

His influence in the Middle East was profound, but controversial too.

The Camp David accords represented Carter’s greatest foreign policy achievement. He brought together Israel and its greatest enemy of the time, Egypt.

The image of Carter cupping the clasped hands of Egyptian president Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Begin on the north lawn of the White House in September 1978 is iconic. It represented the framework on which coexistence in the Middle East continues to be built.

With the deal he did more for Israeli security than any American president since, and yet he maintained a compassion for the Palestinian cause that no other American president has come close to.

Years later, out of office, he was among the first to accuse Israel of its own apartheid regime against the Palestinians.

A presidency dominated by “events”

Under his presidency, the Cold War got hotter. A wary Carter ditched a key arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union. It would raise tensions but eventually help precipitate the collapse of the USSR.

With Britain, he fostered the so-called “special relationship”; he and British prime minister James Callaghan were close.

But “events” overtook his vision and his presidency unravelled.

In Iran, revolution came and US hostages were taken. American diplomats were held hostage for more than a year. A risky rescue ordered by president Carter went wrong, eight US servicemen were killed and Carter was blamed.

After just one term, Carter was out. The American people, struggling economically, chose the Republican showman Ronald Reagan and an optimism they could no longer find in Carter.

Misjudged by history?

History is so often cruel and distorted. It would hand many achievements built by Carter to Reagan instead.

It was Carter who laid the foundations for Middle East coexistence, and though he would be let down by partners later, and coexistence seems at times to be very far off, his vision remains at the core of the solution. He has arguably done more to fix the Middle East conundrum than any other American president since.

On the Cold War, it was Carter’s decision to ditch the detente with the Soviet Union which would eventually seal its demise. Reagan would not have been able to demand Gorbachev “tear down this wall” without Carter’s leadership in the years before.

The Democrat presidents since have often borrowed Carter’s core principles and yet the party orphaned him.

In November, as the nation chose between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, his spokespeople confirmed that he had cast his vote.

It was not revealed who he had voted for but was widely assumed that his final democratic act was to vote for Kamala Harris.

His son Chip said his father had not voted Republican in his life.

A legacy beyond politics

This “involuntary retirement”, as Carter would later put it, left much undone and it was really only after leaving office that he began to build the legacy he’d want to be remembered for.

With his wife, Rosalynn, he founded The Carter Center, a charity with his principle of healing at its heart.

The charity’s work – conflict resolution, disease prevention and the promotion of democracy – continues to this day. It represents president Carter’s legacy in 80 nations around the world.

In 2002, it was this work which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Since then, under his leadership, its work has helped to nearly eradicate Guinea Worm Disease. As of 2021 there were just 15 cases reported globally. An extraordinary achievement.

At home in America, the charity Habitat for Humanity was a central part of the Carters’ fundraising efforts. Over many years, Jimmy and his wife were seen building and renovating homes for some of the nation’s poorest.

And away from this spotlight at his lifelong home in Plains, Georgia, president Carter was a painter, a furniture maker, a winemaker, and an author of a remarkable 32 books.

The death of his wife Rosalynn last year must have been an enormous blow for Carter.

She had been at his side always, and so often hand in hand. His best friend, his counsel, his “chief advisor”, his wife since 1946.

So often over the years, he’s been asked to reveal the magic of their bond. His answer: “Never go to bed angry.”

“Always make peace,” he said.

In much more than just marriage, that was president Carter’s defining principle.

He’s survived by his four children Jack, James (Chip), Donnel (Jeff) and Amy, 11 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

US

Epstein victims express shock and outrage over incomplete release of files

Published

51 mins ago

December 21, 2025

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Epstein victims express shock and outrage over incomplete release of files

Several victims of Jeffrey Epstein have told Sky News that the incomplete release of the files relating to the dead paedophile financier have left them feeling shocked, outraged and disappointed.

Thousands of files relating to Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, were made public late on Friday – but only a fraction of them have been released so far, with many heavily redacted.

‘Nothing transparent about release’

Marina Lacerda, a Brazilian-born survivor who suffered sexual abuse by Epstein as a teenager, expressed her disappointment over the incomplete release, calling it “a slap in our faces”.

“We were all excited yesterday before the files came out,” she told Sky News presenter Anna Botting.

“And when they did come out, we were just in shock, and we see that there is nothing there that is transparent. So it’s very sad, it’s very disappointing.”

Ms Lacera said she had just turned 14 when she met Epstein before “our relationship, our friendship I should say” ended when she was 17.

“At that point, he had made it very clear to me that I was old, that I was no longer fun for him. So, he booted me out, and I was no longer needed for him,” she said.

Epstein files – latest updates

The Department of Justice (DoJ) suggests that 1,200 victims and their families have effectively been shielded from view in the released documents.

Ms Lacera said: “From what I know, [the number of Epstein victims] is over a thousand, but that’s just what the DoJ can collect or the FBI can collect, but I presume there may be more than that.”

‘No way it’s not a cover-up’

Ashley Rubright met the late sex offender when she was just 15 in Palm Beach and was subject to abuse over several years.

Asked about her dissatisfaction with yesterday’s government release and if there was a sense of a cover-up operation, she noted that there had been knowledge of Epstein’s crimes “for so, so long”.

“There’s no way that there’s not a cover-up – what it is, I don’t know,” she told Sky News’ US correspondent James Matthews.

“I just hope that nobody’s allowed to fly under the radar with their involvement.”

Regarding the extent of the redactions, she said: “I’m so not shocked, but let down. Disappointed.

“Seeing […] completely redacted pages, there’s no way that that’s just to protect the victims’ identities, and there better be a good reason. I just don’t know if we’ll ever know what that is.

“We’ve been left behind since day one. That’s why I think we’re all fighting so loud now, because we’re tired of it.”

‘He wanted to man-handle me’

Another survivor, Alicia Arden, told Sky News that she met Epstein in a California hotel room in 1997 for an audition, when she was a 25-year-old model and actress.

“He let me in and he started looking over my portfolio, which is customary to do in a talent audition, and then he insinuated, ‘oh, you should come closer to me and let me see your body’,” she said.

Epstein then started “taking off my top and my pants and touching my rear end and my breasts”.

“He goes, ‘let me come over here and spin for me and let me man-handle you. Let me man-handle you.’ And I got very nervous and started to cry. I said, ‘I have to go, Jeffrey. I don’t really think this is gonna work out’,” Ms Arden said.

“He got a phone call and I was crying in front of him. And he said, ‘I have this beautiful girl in front of me and she’s very upset’. I said ‘I’m gonna leave’ and he offered me $100 and I said ‘I’m not a prostitute’.”

She said she went to the Santa Monica Police Department to file a report.

“That was as difficult, and I’m like shaking telling you, but as difficult as being in the hotel room with him because they weren’t supportive at all about it,” she said. Her redacted report was included in previous files.

‘Epstein was a monster’

Asked what she thought about Epstein now, she said: “He’s a monster […] and just horrible. I mean, I’m trembling thinking about him and talking about him.

“If I could do anything, I’m happy I got the police report filed. If they would have pursued him and maybe gone over the hotel [where he was] essentially living, then I could have maybe saved the girls. I’ve always thought that.”

Ms Arden does not believe she has seen justice as one of Epstein’s victims.

“I want to see all of the files come out. I want all of the men in there or women that were trafficking these girls, and they shouldn’t be able to walk around free and not pay for if they did something,” she said.

“They should be actually arrested if they’re in the files and it’s proven that they did horrible things to these girls, and they should lose their jobs, their lives, their homes, their money, and pay for what they did, and it was all supposed to come out, and it hasn’t.”

‘I feel redeemed’ by file release

Maria Farmer, who made a complaint to the Miami FBI in 1996 in which she alleged that Epstein stole and sold photos she had taken of her 12- and 16-year-old sisters, expressed gratitude for the release of the files.

“This is amazing. Thank you for believing me. I feel redeemed. This is one of the best days of my life,” she said in a statement through her lawyers.

“I’m crying for two reasons. I want everyone to know that I am shedding tears of joy for myself, but also tears of sorrow for all the other victims that the FBI failed.”

A positive-leaning reaction also came from Dani Bensky, who said she was sexually abused by Epstein when she was 17 years old.

She told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News: “There is part of me that feels a bit validated at this moment, because I think so many of us have been saying, ‘No, this is real, like, we’re not a hoax’.

“There’s so much information, and yet not as much as we may have wanted to see.”

‘It is not over’

Lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented several Epstein victims, told Sky News about the partial release on Friday: “It’s very disappointing that all of the files were not released yesterday as required and, in fact, mandated by law.

“The law didn’t say they could do this over a period of time, it didn’t say that weeks could go by.”

Deputy attorney general Mr Blanche said additional file disclosures can be expected by the end of the year.

“But that’s not what the law says. So clearly, the law has been violated. And it’s the Department of Justice letting down the survivors once again,” Ms Allred said.

The lawyer labelled the incomplete release of the files a “distraction”, adding: “This is not over, and it won’t be over until we get the truth and transparency for the survivors.”

‘Only redactions required by law’

The tranche of material was released just hours before a legal deadline in the US following the passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act – and at the same time as a US strike targeting Islamic State fighters in Syria.

The US deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said the justice department was continuing to review the remaining files and was withholding some documents under exemptions meant to protect the victims.

But Sky News’ James Matthews said the significance of the files “is undermined by the lack of context”, while some Democrats and Republicans criticised the partial release as failing to “comply with law”.

Meanwhile, the justice department has defended the redactions made in the released files.

“The only redactions being applied to the documents are those required by law – full stop. Consistent with the statute and applicable laws, we are not redacting the names of individuals or politicians unless they are a victim,” it quoted deputy attorney general Mr Blanche in a post on X.

The Trump administration has claimed to be the most transparent in history.

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In a statement, the White House claimed the release also demonstrated its commitment to justice for Epstein’s victims, criticising previous Democratic administrations for not doing the same.

But that statement ignored that the disclosures only happened because Congress forced the administration’s hand with a bill demanding the release, after Trump officials declared earlier this year that no more Epstein files would be made public.

US

The links between Jeffrey Epstein and the UK revealed in new files

Published

16 hours ago

December 20, 2025

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The links between Jeffrey Epstein and the UK revealed in new files

Jeffrey Epstein led two different lives – sex offender and celebrity networker – and he did that in the UK as well as the US.

The newly released Epstein documents reveal, in particular, how the paedophile financier ascended into the highest levels of British society.

This photo of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor sprawled across the lap of several women, whose identities have been protected, speaks to his close relationship with Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed for child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with Epstein. But the furnishings are even more revealing.

Epstein files – latest updates

Sky News matched the fireplace in this photo with the one in Sandringham, the estate where the royals tend to spend Christmas – (Andrew is not invited this year).

Andrew has vigorously denied any accusations against him.

Also included in the latest release are Epstein’s flight records. They provide some useful corroborating evidence.

On 9 March 2001, his plane landed at “EGGW” – Luton Airport – with JE, GM and VR on board – Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Roberts, better known by her married name of Virginia Giuffre and perhaps Epstein’s most famous accuser.

The next day is when this photo was alleged to have been taken, in London, of Giuffre and Andrew.

Other photos show Maxwell on the steps of Downing Street – and power was as much a draw as celebrity.

On 15 May 2002, the flight records show Epstein again arriving at Luton.

The next day is when he met Tony Blair, prime minister at the time. This was before Epstein’s first arrest and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing.

The meeting was arranged by Peter Mandelson, who lost his job as ambassador to the US because of his Epstein connections, and who features prominently in the files.

The UK was a draw for Epstein’s wider circle too – Maxwell here is pictured touring the Churchill War Rooms with Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey. Neither are accused of wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

And the other grim life that Epstein led, of sex trafficking, also had British links.

Another document released in the files, from 2019, shows witness testimony from Maxwell’s trial. In it, a victim is mentioned who is “17 years old” and who grew up “in England”. She would later be taken to Epstein’s private Caribbean island.

US

US launches ‘large scale’ strikes to ‘eliminate’ Islamic State fighters in Syria after US citizens killed in desert

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

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US launches 'large scale' strikes to 'eliminate' Islamic State fighters in Syria after US citizens killed in desert

The US has launched strikes to “eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites” in Syria, according to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

A U.S. official described it as “a large-scale” strike that hit 70 targets in areas across central Syria that had IS infrastructure and weapons.

“This is not the beginning of a war – it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” he said in a social media post.

The announcement came after three US citizens – two National Guard members and a civilian interpreter – were killed in an attack in the Syrian desert on 13 December. Three US personnel were also wounded, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson said on X.

US President Donald Trump blamed the killings on Islamic State fighters.

“Because of ISIS’s vicious killing of brave American Patriots in Syria, whose beautiful souls I welcomed home to American soil earlier this week in a very dignified ceremony, I am hereby announcing that the United States is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“We are striking very strongly against ISIS strongholds in Syria, a place soaked in blood which has many problems, but one that has a bright future if ISIS can be eradicated.”

He said the Syrian government was fully supportive of the US strikes against the Islamic State, warning that fighters “will be hit harder than you have ever been hit before”.

A US official told The Associated Press that the US strike on Islamic State fighters on Friday was conducted using F-15 Eagle jets, A-10 Thuderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said more strikes should be expected.