NATO’s secretary general said Monday that the alliance is reviewing a permanent increase of NATO peacekeepers to Kosovo and Bosnia at a time of increasing violence and warnings of Russian interference.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Bosnian-Serb leaders have stepped up their rhetoric seeking secession from the federation, NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO allies “strongly support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina.”

“We are concerned by the secessionist and divisive rhetoric, as well as malign foreign interference, including Russia,” Stoltenberg said in Sarajevo.

Stoltenberg later on Monday stopped in Kosovo, where on September 24 dozens of heavily armed men led by Kosovo-Serb politician Milan Radojcic — with alleged ties to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic — attacked Kosovo police in Banjska, killing one officer and engaging state security forces in an hourslong gun battle on the grounds of a Serbian Orthodox monastery.

Three of Radojcic’s armed men were killed before the attackers fled to neighboring Serbia, where U.S. national security officials said they monitored “an unprecedented” but brief Serbian military buildup along the border with Kosovo’s Serb-dominated north. The Serb military presence along the border, which included artillery, tanks and mechanized infantry units, dissipated after U.S. warnings.

Stoltenberg said NATO allies, who responded to the late-September fighting by deploying an additional 1,000 peacekeepers, found the violence “serious” and added more patrols in the area.

“We are now reviewing whether we should have a more permanent increase to ensure that this does not spiral out of control and create new violent conflict in Kosovo or in the wider region,” Stoltenberg said during the joint news conference in Pristina with Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani, which followed meetings with national leaders.

Officials in Pristina have blamed their counterparts in Belgrade for orchestrating the Banjska attack, which officials in Belgrade deny and portray as a reaction by local Serbs disgruntled with Kosovo’s government.

Eye on Russia

Stoltenberg’s visit to Bosnia and Kosovo comes amid increased fears that Russia may use Serbian leaders in Bosnia — and Serbia’s rejection of Kosovo’s independence — to enflame hostilities in a region where ethnic tensions remain rife.

“We expect that those who are responsible for this absolutely unacceptable violence are held to account,” Stoltenberg said. “It is important that it has consequences because we need to do whatever we can to ensure that this kind of violence doesn’t happen again.”

The September gun battle followed another violent clash in May, when 93 NATO peacekeepers were injured by a Serbian mob that protested a move by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to install Albanian mayors in municipal buildings after a local election boycotted by Kosovo Serbs.

Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 2008, when it fought a war of independence following Yugoslavia’s disintegration. Serbia’s 1998-99 crackdown in Kosovo ended after NATO’s bombing campaign and a U.N. resolution that forced Serbia to relinquish control over the territory.

“NATO has a history in this part of Europe since the 1990s and, therefore, we have invested a lot in stability, in peace in this region, in Kosovo but also in Bosnia,” Stoltenberg said. “We are really investing in security in this region because safety for these people in this region, stability in this region matters for our own security.”

Leaders from Kosovo and Serbia are engaged in a EU-mediated dialogue that aims to normalize relations between the two. The dialogue, however, has largely stalled amid opposing demands between the two sides.

Stoltenberg urged both sides to refocus the dialogue.

“Stability in the region depends on all sides choosing diplomacy over violence and in honoring existing commitments,” he said.

Stoltenberg’s tour of the region is scheduled to include a stop in North Macedonia.
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This year’s Los Angeles Auto Show has kicked off and it is full of flash, speed and new innovations. Angelina Bagdasarian has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian
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Severe storms and flooding have left nine people dead across Turkey, officials said Monday, including one seaman who died when a cargo ship sank off Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Eleven other crew members were reported missing.

The Turkish-flagged Kafkametler sank Sunday after hitting a breakwater outside the harbor off the town of Eregli, some 200 kilometers (124 miles) east of Istanbul. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said the vessel, which was on its way to the western Turkish port of Izmir, smashed into the breakwater several times before it sank.

The search-and-rescue operation was delayed by several hours because of the severe weather. But as the condition eased, rescuers Monday found the body of the ship’s cook, Uraloglu said.

At least three people were killed in the storms in the town of Eregli, while five people died in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir and Batman after being swept away by floodwaters caused by heavy rains, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. The victims included a grandmother and her three grandchildren. Some 50 people were hurt.

Another cargo ship, the Cameroon-flagged Pallada broke into two due to heavy weather conditions after running aground in 5-meter (16-foot) waves off Eregli, the Maritime General Directorate said. All 13 crew were rescued safely.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said inmates had been transferred from Eregli’s prison to surrounding facilities due to rising water levels.

In neighboring Bulgaria, gale-force winds and heavy rain and snow claimed the lives of two people Sunday and disrupted power supplies. Officials declared a state of emergency in the Black Sea city of Varna.
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Lawyers for former President Donald Trump urged a federal appeals court on Monday to revoke a gag order in the federal case charging him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“The order is unprecedented and it sets a terrible precedent for future restrictions on core political speech,” Trump attorney John Sauer told a three-judge panel.

Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith’s team, meanwhile, are urging the court to put back in place an order barring the Republican former president from making inflammatory statements about potential witnesses and lawyers in the case.

The prosecutors say those restrictions are necessary to prevent Trump from undermining confidence in the court system and intimidating people who may be called to testify against him. Defense lawyers call the gag order an unconstitutional muzzling of Trump’s free speech rights and say prosecutors have presented no evidence to support the idea that his words have caused harm or made anyone feel threatened.

During arguments Monday, Trump lawyer Sauer called the gag order a “heckler’s veto,” unfairly relying on the theory that Trump’s speech might someday inspire other people to harass or intimidate his targets.

The gag order is one of multiple contentious issues being argued ahead of the landmark March 2024 trial. Defense lawyers are also trying to get the case dismissed by arguing that Trump, as a former president, is immune from prosecution and protected by the First Amendment from being charged. The outcome of Monday’s arguments won’t affect those constitutional claims, but it will set parameters on what Trump as both a criminal defendant and leading presidential candidate can and cannot say ahead of the trial.

The order has had a whirlwind trajectory through the courts since U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed it last month in response to a request from prosecutors, who cited among other comments Trump’s repeated disparagement of Smith as “deranged.”

The judge lifted it days after entering it, giving Trump’s lawyers time to prove why his words should not be restricted. But after Trump took advantage of that pause by posting on social media comments that prosecutors said were meant to sway his former chief of staff against giving unfavorable testimony, Chutkan put it back in place.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit later lifted it as it considered Trump’s appeal.

The judges hearing the case include Cornelia Pillard and Patricia Millett, both appointees of President Barack Obama, and Brad Garcia, who joined the bench earlier this year after being nominated by President Joe Biden. Obama and Biden are Democrats.

The panel is not expected to immediately rule on Monday. Should the judges rule against Trump, he’ll have the option of asking the entire court to take up the matter. His lawyers have also signaled that they’ll ask the Supreme Court to get involved.

The four-count indictment in Washington is one of four criminal cases Trump faces as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.

He’s been charged in Florida, also by Smith’s team, with illegally hoarding dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. He’s also been charged in state court in New York in connection with hush money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels, who alleged an extramarital affair with him, and in Georgia with scheming to subvert the 2020 presidential election in that state. He has denied doing anything wrong.
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Russia has placed a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on its wanted list, state news agencies reported Monday.

The reports said an Interior Ministry database listed singer Susana Jamaladinova as being sought for violating a criminal law.

The independent news site Mediazona, which covers opposition and human rights issues, said Jamaladinova was charged under a law adopted last year that bans spreading so-called fake information about the Russian military and the ongoing fighting in Ukraine.

Jamaladinova, who performs under the stage name Jamala, is of Crimean Tatar descent. She won the 2016 Eurovision contest with the song “1944,” a title that refers to the year the Soviet Union deported Crimean Tatars en masse.

Her winning performance came almost exactly two years after Russia annexed Crimea as political turmoil gripped Ukraine. Most other countries regard the annexation as illegitimate.

Russia protested “1944” being allowed in the competition, saying it violated rules against political speech in Eurovision. But the song made no specific criticism of Russia or the Soviet Union, although it drew such implications, opening with the lyrics “When strangers are coming, they come to your house, they kill you all and say ‘We’re not guilty.'”
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As the 2024 U.S. presidential race begins to ramp up, some contenders are already using artificial intelligence to generate promotional videos, some of which blur the lines between what is real and what is not. Karina Bafradzhian has the story. VOA footage by Andrey Degtyarev.
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A tornado that hit the town of Star Valley prompted the National Weather Service’s Flagstaff branch to survey damage to the area, the organization said Sunday.

Officials from the town located about 95 miles northeast of Phoenix said at least 10 homes were damaged due to the wind, according to ABC15 Arizona.

Nobody was hurt in the tornado, but the gusts killed a dog, according to the TV station.

National Weather Service staff arrived in Star Valley around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Tony Merriman, a meteorologist for the organization, said in a brief interview. Additional updates will be posted later in the evening, the National Weather Service said in an emailed statement.
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Liberty and Bell are ready for their presidential pardons.

The two Thanksgiving turkeys were due at the White House on Monday to play their part in what has become an annual holiday tradition: a president sparing them from becoming someone’s dinner.

“We think that’s a great way to kick off the holiday season and really, really a fun honor,” Steve Lykken, chairman of the National Turkey Federation and president of the Jennie-O Turkey Store, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The event, set for the South Lawn this year instead of the Rose Garden, marks the unofficial start of the holiday season in Washington, and Monday was shaping up to be an especially busy opening day.

President Joe Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, also was celebrating his 81st birthday on Monday. In the afternoon, his wife, first lady Jill Biden, was accepting the delivery of a 5.6-meter Fraser fir from Fleetwood, North Carolina, as the official White House Christmas tree.

Lykken introduced Liberty and Bell on Sunday at the Willard Intercontinental, a luxury hotel close to the White House. The gobblers checked into a suite there on Saturday following their red carpet arrival in the U.S. capital after a dayslong road trip from Minnesota in a black Cadillac Escalade.

“They were raised like all of our turkeys, protected, of course, from weather extremes and predators, free to walk about with constant access to water and feed,” Lykken said Sunday, as Liberty and Bell strutted around the Willard’s newly renovated Crystal Room on plastic sheeting laid over the carpet. Young children in the crowd of onlookers — many of them employees and guests of the Jennie-O company — yelled “gobble, gobble” at them.

The male turkeys, both about 20 weeks old and about 19 kg, were hatched in July in Willmar, Minnesota — Jennie-O is headquartered there — as part of the “presidential flock,” Lykken said. They listened to music and other sounds to prepare them for Monday’s hoopla at the White House.

“They listened to all kinds of music to get ready for the crowds and people along the way. I can confirm they are, in fact, Swifties, and they do enjoy some Prince,” Lykken said, meaning that Liberty and Bell are fans of Taylor Swift. “I think they’re absolutely ready for prime time.”

The tradition dates to 1947 when the National Turkey Federation, which represents turkey farmers and producers, first presented a National Thanksgiving Turkey to President Harry Truman.

Back then, and even earlier, the gobbler was given for the first family’s holiday consumption.

But by the late 1980s, the tradition had evolved into an often-humorous ceremony in which the birds are pardoned, given a second chance at life after they are spared from ending up on a family’s Thanksgiving table.

In 1989, as animal rights activists picketed nearby, President George H.W. Bush said, “But let me assure you, and this fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy — he’s granted a presidential pardon as of right now — and allow him to live out his days on a children’s farm not far from here.”

After Biden pardons his third pair of turkeys on Monday, Liberty and Bell will be returned to their home state to be cared for by the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences.

“You can imagine the wonderful care they’re going to get from students and veterinarians and professors, etc., and so they will hopefully have a chance, maybe, to go see a hockey game or spend time with Goldy the gopher,” Lykken said, referring to the university’s mascot.

A little over 200 million turkeys will be eaten on Thanksgiving, Lykken said.

Biden will eat his Thanksgiving turkey with family on Nantucket, a Massachusetts island, continuing a long family tradition. On Sunday, he and the first lady served an early Thanksgiving meal to hundreds of service members from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Gerald R. Ford at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia, the largest installation of its kind in the world, along with their families.

Markus Platzer, the Willard’s general manager, said the hotel’s role in introducing the turkeys is the “highlight of the year.” The Willard has been involved for more than 15 years, he said, calling the turkeys “very special guests of ours.”

“There are so many bad things going on globally that this is something where everybody, you know, brings a smile into the face of the people, at least for a few minutes,” Platzer said Sunday.

 
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Verdicts are expected Monday in the trial of hundreds of people accused of membership in Italy’s ’ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, one of the world’s most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug-trafficking groups.

The trial started almost three years ago in the southern Calabria region, where the mob organization was originally based. The ’ndrangheta quietly amassed power in Italy and abroad as the Sicilian Mafia lost influence.

The syndicate now holds almost a monopoly on cocaine importation in Europe, according to anti-mafia prosecutors who led the investigation in southern Italy. The organization also has bases in North and South America and is active in Africa, Italian prosecutors maintain, and ’ndrangheta figures have been arrested in recent years around Europe and in Brazil and Lebanon.

The trial took place in a specially constructed high-security bunker. Part of an industrial park in Lamezia Terme, the bunker is so vast that video screens were anchored to the ceiling so participants could view the proceedings.

More than 320 defendants are charged with crimes that include drug and arms trafficking, extortion and mafia association, a term in Italy’s penal code for members of organized crime groups. Others are charged with acting in complicity with the ’ndrangheta without actually being a member.

The charges grew out of an investigation of 12 clans linked to a convicted ‘ndrangheta boss. The central figure, Luigi Mancuso, served 19 years in Italian prison for his role in leading what investigators allege is one of the ‘ndrangheta’s most powerful crime families, based in the town of Vibo Valentia.

Based almost entirely on blood ties, the ‘ndrangheta was substantially immune to turncoats for decades, but the ranks of those turning state’s evidence are becoming more substantial. In the current trial, they include a relative of Mancuso’s.

Several dozen informants in the case came from the ‘ndrangheta, while others formerly belonged to Sicily’s Cosa Nostra.

Despite the large number of defendants, the trial wasn’t Italy’s biggest one involving alleged mobsters.

In 1986, 475 alleged members of the Sicilian Mafia went on trial in a similarly constructed bunker in Palermo. The proceedings resulted in more than 300 convictions and 19 life sentences. That trial helped reveal many of the brutal methods and murderous strategies of the island’s top mob bosses, including sensational killings that bloodied the Palermo area during years of power struggles.

In contrast, the trial involving the ‘ndrangheta was aimed at securing convictions and sentences based on alleged acts of collusion among mobsters and local politicians, public officials, businessmen and members of secret lodges to show how deeply rooted the syndicate is in Calabria.

“The relevance (of this trial) is enormous,” Italian lawmaker former anti-mafia chief prosecutor and lawmaker Federico Cafiero De Raho, a former chief anti-mafia prosecutor, told The Associated Press in an interview. “First of all, because every trial against the ‘ndrangheta gives a very significant message to the territory, which is not only the Calabrian one, but the national territory.”

“But it has repercussions also at a European and world level, because the ‘ndrangheta is one of the strongest organizations in the world, able to manage the international traffic of narcotics, as well as many other activities,” Cafiero De Raho added.

Awash in cocaine trafficking revenues, the ’ndrangheta has gobbled up hotels, restaurants, pharmacies, car dealerships and other businesses throughout Italy, especially in Rome and the country’s affluent north, criminal investigations have revealed.

The buying spree spread across Europe as the syndicate sought to launder illicit revenues but also to make “clean” money by running legitimate businesses, including in the tourism and hospitality sectors, investigators alleged.

“Arrests allow their activities to be halted for a time, but the investigations determine the need for further investigations each time,” Cafiero De Raho said.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin slipped unannounced into Kyiv on Monday in a brazen display of Western solidarity to reassure Ukrainian leaders that the United States will continue to support their country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

Austin was greeted at the train station in Kyiv by the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, and the U.S. defense attache, Brigadier General Kipling Kahler, and joined on the trip by U.S. General Christopher Cavoli, who serves as the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the head of U.S. European Command.

Senior U.S. defense officials said Austin came to Kyiv to discuss the immediate winter fight and to plan for future security assistance.

“We are continuing to provide a regular battle rhythm of security assistance, and we are planning to be able to do that throughout the winter,” said a senior defense official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity due to security concerns for the trip.

The visit, Austin’s first since April 2022, comes as the onset of winter has Ukrainian and Western officials convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will resume targeting critical infrastructure as he did last winter, leaving many Ukrainians without power on some of the coldest days of the year.

“One of the most important capabilities this winter will be air defense,” a second senior defense official told reporters traveling with Austin, and speaking under the same conditions of anonymity. “We’ve been able to surge air defense equipment, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still needs and that there won’t still be needs in the coming months ahead.”

An onslaught of nearly 40 Iranian-made drones launched from Russian territory bombarded Ukrainian air defenses over the weekend.

Ukraine said its forces destroyed 29 of the 38 drones, but those that made it through Ukraine’s defenses struck multiple infrastructure facilities and caused power outages in more than 400 towns and villages throughout the country.

The drones attacked from the Odesa and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south, to the Chernihiv region in the north, near the border with Belarus. They also targeted Kyiv in the second attack so far this month, but all drones heading to the capital were shot down, Ukrainian officials said.

The Pentagon will continue to draw down from its current weapons and ammunition stockpiles to support Ukraine, but officials say that over the coming months, the United States also will be sending Ukraine a number of capabilities that were procured last year through contracting. Ammunition supplies have also increased, according to officials, due to Western improvements in production capacity.

Other countries say they are also surging capabilities, with Germany announcing earlier this month that it would deliver more crucial air defense systems by the end of this year.

In addition to air defense, officials hope to deny Russian forces an opportunity this winter to fortify their positions. Last winter, Russian fighters capitalized on a lull in the fighting by digging in on territory they controlled, causing some analysts to refer to the fight as a “stalemate.”

“I wouldn’t call it a stalemate. No. This is a dynamic battle,” a senior defense official said. “Ukraine continues to push and succeed on the battlefield against Russian forces. You’ve seen them continue to strike further behind Russian lines. … They are making inroads in disrupting Russian operations, in degrading Russian capabilities.”

The official pointed to the recent Ukrainian offensive in the Kherson region as an example of Ukraine’s ability “to create a disadvantage for Russian forces in an area where, frankly, their defenses are thinner.”

Ukrainian troops last week pushed Russian soldiers out of positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River and established several bridgeheads. Crossing the river with heavy equipment and supplies could give Ukrainian forces the opportunity to open a new line of attack on the most direct land route to Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Although Moscow’s forces still control about 18% of Ukrainian land, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, told VOA last month that Kyiv’s forces had taken back more than 50% of its invaded territory.

The surprise visit to Kyiv also comes as Western support is at risk of wavering, especially as events in Israel and Gaza in the last month divert attention from the prolonged conflict in Europe.

Austin will host another round of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group virtually from the Pentagon this week. The Pentagon says more than 50 nations are expected to participate in the talks, which help Ukraine’s partners coordinate military aid sent to Kyiv.

There has been a growing reluctance in the U.S. Congress to send more military aid to Ukraine, although senior defense officials still point to “clear bipartisan support” for Ukrainian security assistance when speaking to their concerned Ukrainian counterparts.

“We continue to believe that Congress will provide that support, and we are planning based on that conviction,” said a senior defense official, while also acknowledging that should support for Ukraine aid change, the administration would have to reassess some of the longer-term military procurements planned for Kyiv.

The Pentagon has remained just as active on securing aid for Ukraine as it was before the conflict erupted in the Middle East because “Ukraine matters,” another senior defense official said.

“I keep hearing people, you know, coming up to me saying, ‘Oh, I guess you’re not as busy as before.’ That could not be further from the truth, and this trip is a testament to that,” the senior defense official added.
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Reactions to the death of Rosalynn Carter, former first lady and global humanitarian:

President Joe Biden said the Carters “brought grace” to the White House. “He had this great integrity, still does. And she did too,” Biden told reporters as he was boarding Air Force One to leave Norfolk, Virginia on Sunday night.

“God bless them.” Biden said he spoke to the family and was told that Jimmy Carter was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.

Later the White House released an official joint statement from the president and first lady Jill Biden saying that Carter inspired the nation.

“She was a champion for equal rights and opportunities for women and girls; an advocate for mental health and wellness for every person; and a supporter of the often unseen and uncompensated caregivers of our children, aging loved ones, and people with disabilities,” the statement said.

Former President George W. Bush called Carter a woman of dignity and strength.

“There was no greater advocate of President Carter, and their partnership set a wonderful example of loyalty and fidelity. She leaves behind an important legacy in her work to destigmatize mental health. We join our fellow citizens in sending our condolences to President Carter and their family,” Bush said in a statement with former first lady Laura Bush.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said Carter would be remembered for her compassionate nature and passion for women’s rights, human rights and mental health reform. “The State of Georgia and the United States are better places because of Rosalynn Carter,” Ossoff said in a statement. “I join all Georgians and Americans in mourning her loss. May Rosalynn Carter’s memory be a blessing.”

Vice President Kamala Harris said Rosalynn Carter redefined the role of first lady and lived a life of service, faith, compassion, and moral leadership.

“As a humanitarian, a public servant, and a global leader, Mrs. Carter improved the lives of millions — and inspired countless more to dedicate their lives to service. Her legacy will be a beacon for generations to come,” Harris said in a statement.

Former President Donald Trump said Carter “earned the admiration and gratitude” of the nation.

“From her days as a U.S. Navy spouse, to the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, to her tenure as First Lady of the United States, and her later work at the Carter Center and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, she leaves behind a legacy of extraordinary accomplishment and national service,” Trump said on Truth Social.

In a separate statement, former first lady Melania Trump said Carter leaves behind a meaningful legacy.

“We will always remember her servant’s heart and devotion to her husband, family, and country. May she rest in peace,” Melania Trump said on X, formerly Twitter.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Carter was a “saintly and revered public servant” driven by faith, compassion and kindness.

“On the world stage, First Lady Carter was a pioneer. Her historic, high-stakes diplomatic mission to Latin America in 1977 ushered in a new era of engagement in the region.

Two years later, she became the first sitting First Lady to address the World Health Organization, where she argued that mental health was an aspect of physical health – and that health is a human right,” Pelosi said in a statement offering condolences to the Carter family.

Bill and Hillary Clinton called Carter a champion of human dignity.

“Thanks to her mental health advocacy, more people live with better care and less stigma. Because of her early leadership on childhood immunization, millions of Americans have grown up healthier. And through her decades of work at the Carter Center and with Habitat for Humanity, she spread hope, health, and democracy across the globe,” the former president and former secretary of state said in a joint statement.

“Rosalynn will be forever remembered as the embodiment of a life lived with purpose.”

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens called Carter “the model for the modern day First Lady” and praised her work promoting mental health awareness. “She never stopped advocating for mental health or the Equal Rights Amendment,” Dickens said in a statement.

“The city of Atlanta joins all of Georgia — and mourners around the world — as we honor the memory of First Lady Rosalynn Carter.”

Former first lady Michelle Obama said Rosalynn Carter sometimes offered advice during their periodic lunches at the White House.

“She reminded me to make the role of First Lady my own, just like she did. I’ll always remain grateful for her support and her generosity,” Obama said in a statement.

“Today, Barack and I join the world in celebrating the remarkable legacy of a First Lady, philanthropist, and advocate who dedicated her life to lifting up others. Her life is a reminder that no matter who we are, our legacies are best measured not in awards or accolades, but in the lives we touch.”

Habitat For Humanity, the Georgia-based charity that the Carters worked for tirelessly, said its members were saddened by the former first lady’s passing.

“She was a compassionate and committed champion of #HabitatforHumanity and worked fiercely to help families around the world,” the nonprofit said on X.

Carter’s legacy will be a source of pride for her home state, said U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, the chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia.

“Georgia Democrats join our entire state, nation, and the world in mourning the loss of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter – an extraordinary humanitarian, fierce mental health advocate, and beloved daughter of Georgia,” Williams said.

The Carter Center said it was grieving the passing of its co-founder.

“She was a partner in good deeds with her husband, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, as they traversed the globe to strengthen democracy, resolve conflicts, advance human rights, and eliminate debilitating diseases after their time in the White House,” the center said in a statement.

In lieu of flowers, Carter requested that those wishing to honor her memory do so through contributions to the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program or the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, the statement said.
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