It is the world’s most exclusive society and meetings are limited to infrequent state occasions, but the so-called American Presidents Club was in session Thursday to see off departed comrade Jimmy Carter.The five living men who have occupied the White House — Joe Biden and his predecessors Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump — came together at Washington’s National Cathedral for their first encounter since the 2018 funeral of another former president, George H.W. Bush.The political establishment turned out in force for Thursday’s ceremony, with former vice presidents Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle chatting amiably as the elite leaders group was seated nearby.It might have been an awkward affair, as Trump has denigrated most of the group in disputes of varying degrees of seriousness — and found himself sitting next to longtime sparring partner Obama.Trump launched his political career by pushing the racist and false “birther” conspiracy theory that his Democratic predecessor — the first and only Black president — was lying about being a natural born American.But the pair appeared able to put their differences on hold as television images showed them exchanging cordial small talk, with Obama smiling and laughing.It was also the first time since the election that Trump had been in the same room as his opponent Kamala Harris — whom he repeatedly accused of being mentally ill — and his first time in four years in close proximity to his estranged vice president, Mike Pence. Pence refused to endorse his former boss in the 2024 election after a mob that Trump sent marching on the Capitol to halt the certification of the 2020 election stormed the building chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”Biden, who gave the eulogy, sat with First Lady Jill Biden beside Vice President Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton — whom Trump defeated in 2016 to claim his first term — took their places next to Bush and his wife Laura.As the TV audience studied the presidents’ interactions, US media remarked on the added awkwardness of the leaders of Canada and Panama, two nations threatened recently by Trump, being sat less than 30 feet (10 meters) from the president-elect.Carter, who died on December 29, lay in repose in his home state of Georgia and then at the US Capitol, where the public paid their respects from Tuesday through early Thursday.After the funeral, Carter’s family will return to the Peach State for a private ceremony and a procession before he is buried next to his late wife, Rosalynn, who died in 2023. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg urged the US Supreme Court on Thursday to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s request to block sentencing in his hush money case.Trump is to be sentenced on Friday after being convicted by a New York jury in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.Trump, 78, who is to be sworn in as president on January 20, filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking to halt his sentencing after a New York state appeals court dismissed his bid to have the hearing delayed.Trump’s lawyers have made several legal maneuvers in an effort to fend off the sentencing, which the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has already indicated will not result in jail time.”This court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government,” they wrote in their application to the Supreme Court.Trump’s lawyers have claimed that the immunity from prosecution granted to a sitting president should be extended to a president-elect.Bragg rejected their arguments in his response, saying that Trump was a private citizen when he was “charged, tried, and convicted for conduct that he concedes is wholly unofficial.””Defendant makes the unprecedented claim that the temporary presidential immunity he will possess in the future fully immunizes him now, weeks before he even takes the oath of office, from all state-court criminal process,” he said.- ‘No basis’ -Bragg also said the Supreme Court “lacks jurisdiction over a state court’s management of an ongoing criminal trial” and preventing sentencing would be an “extraordinary step” by the top court.”There is no basis for such intervention,” Bragg said. “The emergency application should be denied.”In their filing to the New York appeals court, Trump’s legal team had argued that sentencing should be postponed while the former president appeals his conviction, but associate justice Ellen Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.Merchan said in a filing last week he was leaning towards giving Trump an unconditional discharge that would not carry jail time or probation.The sentence would nevertheless see Trump entering the White House as the first convicted felon to serve as US president. Trump potentially faced up to four years in prison, but legal experts — even before he won the November presidential election — did not expect Merchan to incarcerate him.Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, four years after his supporters rioted at the US Capitol as he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat.

Jimmy Carter brought a brief moment of national unity to a divided America Thursday as five US presidents gathered for the solemn state funeral of the 39th commander-in-chief in Washington’s National Cathedral.In historic scenes just 11 days before the inauguration of Donald Trump for what promises to be a turbulent second term, the incoming president and outgoing President Joe Biden set aside their bitter rivalry to mourn Carter together.Former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also sat with them for the somber ceremony to honor Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100 in his home state of Georgia.Democrat Carter was widely perceived as naive and weak during his single term from 1977 to 1981, but a more nuanced view has emerged as the years passed, focusing on his decency and foreign policy achievements.Carter’s flag-draped coffin was transported from the US Capitol, where it had been lying in state, and brought into the immense cathedral by an honor guard of service members in ceremonial uniforms.His grandson Joshua Carter gave the first homily to the last president of the “Greatest Generation.”- ‘Decent man’ -President Joe Biden will deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat at the neo-Gothic cathedral, a traditional venue for send-offs of US presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush.Biden, who leaves the White House on January 20 after his own single term in office, has said that Carter asked him to do so when the pair — long-standing friends — met for the last time four years ago.”Carter was a decent man. I think Carter looked at the world not from here but from here, where everybody else lives,” Biden said as he gestured from above his head towards his heart.The funeral comes just days before another moment of profound change for the United States, with the return of Trump to the Oval Office.Obama shook hands and chatted with the billionaire Republican. There was also a brief moment of reconciliation for Trump and his former vice president Mike Pence, as they met and shook hands for what is believed to be the first time since the 2021 US Capitol riots when Pence refused to back Trump’s false claims to have won the 2020 election.The five presidents joined around 3,000 mourners at the service, and Thursday has been designated a national day of mourning, with federal offices closed.Carter, who served a single term before a crushing election loss to Reagan in 1980, suffered in the dog-eat-dog world of Washington politics and a hostage crisis involving Americans held in Tehran after Iran’s Islamic revolution finally sealed his fate.But history has led to a reassessment, focusing on his brokering of a peace deal between Israel and Egypt. He also received high praise for his post-presidential humanitarian efforts, and a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.- ‘Thirst for justice’ -The first president to reach triple digits, he had been in hospice care since February 2023 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where he died and will be buried next to his late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter.Mourners began paying their respects on Saturday, as the carefully choreographed six-day farewell got underway with US flags flying at half-staff around the country.A black hearse bearing Carter’s remains paused at his boyhood family peanut farm in Plains, where a bell was rung 39 times and staff stood in silent tribute.Crowds gathered along the roadside to say their goodbyes, snap photographs or salute as the motorcade rolled slowly past.Carter’s casket arrived at Washington’s snow-covered US Capitol on Tuesday atop a gun carriage.It was accompanied by hundreds of service members, with military pallbearers carrying Carter to the Rotunda to lie in state ahead of Thursday’s ceremony — the first presidential funeral since Bush Senior died in 2018.Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, described Carter as “one of the most decent and humble public servants we have ever seen.” “President Carter was a living embodiment of leadership through service, compassion, and a thirst for justice for all,” he said.

Shell-shocked Los Angeles residents on Thursday surveyed the devastation from wind-whipped fires that have engulfed entire neighborhoods and claimed at least five lives, as forecasters warned of further dangerous conditions.Several blazes were still burning out of control, with zero percent containment of fires in upscale Pacific Palisade and the northern suburb of Altadena — which have both been incinerated.”Altadena is just devastated,” said Judy Chu, the US congresswoman representing the region, who visited an evacuation center where 1,000 displaced residents sought shelter.”They are numb. They don’t know what they will return to once this fire is contained,” she told local news KTLA.Over 130,000 people across the western US metropolis remained under evacuation orders as meteorologists warned that “critical” windy and dry conditions, though abated, were not over.”Significant fire growth remains likely with ongoing or new fires” throughout Thursday and into Friday, said a National Weather Service bulletin.But there was some good news for Hollywood, the historic home of the movie industry.Residents were sent scrambling Wednesday night when a fire broke out in the adjacent hills.But evacuation orders were lifted Thursday morning, after emergency workers succeeded in dousing the so-called Sunset Fire.”Fortunately, the Sunset Fire is under control,” said Margaret Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department.”We had multiple helicopters continuously dropping (water). And within an hour, a bulk of the fire had been knocked down,” she said.- Multi-million dollar homes -Fast-moving flames fanned by powerful winds have leveled more than 2,000 structures, many of them multi-million dollar homes in a tragedy that the US media describe as the worst in the city’s history.Millions of Angelenos have watched in horror as blazes have erupted around America’s second biggest city, sparking panic and fear.Winds with gusts up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour spread the fire around the ritzy Pacific Palisades neighborhood with lightning speed.At least 17,000 acres (6,900 hectares) burned there, with 1,000 homes and businesses razed.A separate 10,600-acre (4,300-hectare) fire was burning around Altadena, north of the city, where flames tore through suburban streets.Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said five people were known to have perished, with more deaths feared.- Lost everything -Among those who died was 66-year-old Victor Shaw, whose sister said he had ignored pleas to leave as the fire swept through Altendena because he wanted to protect their home.”When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply back,” Shari Shaw said.”I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm that I had to save myself.”Shaw’s body was found by a friend on the driveway of his razed home, a garden hose in his hand.William Gonzales got out alive, but his Altadena home was gone.”We have lost practically everything; the flames have consumed all our dreams,” he told AFP.Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft are offering evacuating residents free rides to shelter locations.Pasadena fire chief Chad Augustin hailed the bravery of first responders.”Our death count today would be significantly higher without their heroic actions,” Augustin told reporters.President Joe Biden canceled a trip to Italy this week to focus on the federal response to the fires, and is due to address the nation later Thursday.His incoming successor Donald Trump blamed the California governor Gavin Newsom for the devastation, calling on him to resign. “This is all his fault,” Trump said on his Truth social platform. – Climate crisis -Wildfires are part of life in the US West and play a vital role in nature.But scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather patterns.Southern California had two decades of drought that were followed by two exceptionally wet years, which sparked furious vegetative growth — leaving the region packed with fuel and primed to burn — and then has had no significant rain for eight months.