Jimmy Carter, former US president, turns 100

Jimmy Carter celebrates his 100th birthday on Tuesday, making him the first US president to reach the milestone.

Carter, a Democrat who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, has spent the past 19 months in hospice care in his home state of Georgia.

But the former peanut farmer, who first entered politics in the 1960s as a state senator, is “emotionally engaged and still having experiences and laughing, loving,” his grandson, Jason, said in September.

And the centenarian still has political ambitions: “I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris” in November’s election, the humanitarian and Nobel Prize recipient said, according to his grandson.

To honour the occasion, volunteers with Habitat for Humanity – the housing charity Carter has worked with for 40 years – are building 30 homes in Minnesota this week.

There will also be events in Plains, the former Georgia governor’s hometown, to celebrate the occasion on Tuesday. There will be a flyover of military jets and 100 new citizens will have naturalisation ceremonies in his honour.

Source: BBC