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Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Become the Longest-Married Presidential Couple

China’s GDP Growth Grinds to Near 30-Year Low as Tariffs Hit Production

BEIJING—China’s third-quarter economic growth slowed more than expected and to its weakest pace in almost three decades as the bruising Sino-U.S. trade war hit factory production, boosting the case for Beijing to roll out fresh support. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose just 6.0 percent year-on-year, marking a further loss of momentum for the economy from the second quarter’s 6.2 percent growth. Downbeat Chinese data in recent months has highlighted weaker demand at home and abroad. Still, most analysts say the scope for aggressive stimulus is limited in an economy already saddled with piles of debt following previous easing cycles, which have sent housing prices sharply higher. Nie Wen, a Shanghai-based economist at Hwabao Trust, pinned the worse-than-expected GDP growth mainly to weakness in export-related industries, especially the manufacturing sector. “Given…

Former president Jimmy Carter and wife Rosayln arrive at the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America on the West Front of the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009. (Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)

Twenty-six thousand seven hundred and sixty-six days—and counting.

That’s more than 73 years. And that’s how long former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have been married— making them the longest married presidential couple.

The Carter Center celebrated the milestone on Oct. 17 when the couple bested the record held by the late George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush.

And to think it might have turned out differently.

Former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalyn Former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalyn converse prior to the start of Game Three of the NLDS of the 2010 MLB Playoffs between the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants at Turner Field in Atlanta, Ga., on Oct. 10, 2010. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

When Jimmy Carter first proposed, Rosalynn Smith—as she was known then—rejected him. Why? She had made a promise to her dying father she’d finish college first.

As she recounted in her memoir, “First Lady from Plains,” the pair grew up three years and three miles apart.

There were no girls in town who were her age. So Rosalynn became best friends with Jimmy’s younger sister.

“I thought he was the most handsome young man I had ever seen,” she wrote in her memoir.

Her father died when she was 12. But she kept her promise. She graduated from Georgia Southwestern College.

The pair went on their first date in 1945. They married the following year.

He was 21. She was 18.

“The best thing I ever did was marrying Rosalynn,” Carter once said. “That’s a pinnacle in my life.”

That’s not to say it’s been easy sailing all through. Take the time the couple decided to write a book together.

“It’s the worst problem we’ve ever had since we’ve been married,” Jimmy Carter jokingly told CNN at the time.

“It would be like God had given her this text at Mt. Sinai and she had brought it down and presented it to me in stone.”

He is now 95. She is 92. And their love story is still going strong.

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Hong Kong Braces for Weekend of Fresh Pro-Democracy Protests

HONG KONG—Hong Kong is preparing for a weekend of demonstrations, including a human chain at major subway lines on Oct. 18 and a democracy march on Sunday, the latest moves in more than four months of pro-democracy protests. It has been two weeks since Carrie Lam, leader of the Chinese-ruled city, invoked colonial-era emergency laws banning face masks, hoping to quell protests. Instead, the city has been shaken by some of the most intense unrest to date. Although the last few days have been relatively calm, with protesters staying off the streets, prominent human rights activist Jimmy Sham was brutally attacked on Wednesday, a move pro-democracy lawmakers said was meant to intimidate protesters and incite violence ahead of Sunday’s planned march. Police on Friday rejected a permit request for the…