Reuters World News - Dolly Parton, Darline Graham, Canada and Ukraine's 'kill zone'

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, I'm Peter Devlin in London. It's Wednesday, August 26th. Today, tributes pour in for Dolly Parton after the Queen of Country dies aged 80. Darling Graham secures the Republican nomination for US Senate with Trump's backing. And thousands remain without power over two weeks after storms hit Gary, Indiana. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. seven days a week. And I've been writing songs all of my life and this beats the heck out of standing up on hill above the barn

Starting point is 00:00:43 singing to the cows and the chickens and the pigs practice. Tributes have been pouring in for country music icon Dolly Parton who has died at the age of 80 with US President Donald Trump ordering the White House to fly the flag at half-mast, the Empire State Building lighting up in pink in her honour. Anne's singer Beyonce posting online that you were the barometer, the North Star.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Parton's career stretched across nearly six decades, with hits including Jolene and I Will Always Love You. Her family says she died peacefully in Nashville, with People magazine reporting the star fought a brief battle with cancer. Days earlier, Parton told the magazine she was dealing with unspecified health issues, but planned to keep working. Entertainment reporter Lisa Richwine says Parton became much more than a music star. She has a long list of accomplishments that are well known, singing and acting and philanthropy. And I think people just saw her as very genuine and a really sweet person. She really united people. In addition to her music, she donated a lot of money to various causes.

Starting point is 00:01:49 She provided funding for the COVID vaccine during the epidemic. She also has a philanthropy called The Imagination Library, where she sends free books to preschool children. And Lisa says she remained culturally relevant even in her final years. Beyonce just did a cover of Jolene in which she appeared. So she died at age 80. She was still in the middle of the pop culture conversation. Now to South Carolina, where Darling Graham is one the Republican primary runoff for the U.S. Senate, according to U.S. media projections, the win for the sister of late Senator Lindsay Graham is a triumph for President Donald Trump,

Starting point is 00:02:28 who endorsed her candidacy, and backed that up with large campaign contributions from his MAGA Inc. Superpack. Our reporter Richard Cohen was following the race. So it's a pretty meteoric rise for Darlene Graham, but for American politics, that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is Donald Trump put himself square in the middle of this race. He endorsed her. He had a rally for her in Myrtle Beach, South Wales, Carolina just on Friday. During that rally, he proclaimed, I'm on the ballot. With the win, it shows that he can still affect an outcome in a race. And so that means that going forward, Republican candidates are going to be wanting his endorsement, and even more maybe they're going

Starting point is 00:03:18 to be wanting some of the money that his political pack. But Richard says it may be too soon to rate anything wider into the wind for the midterms. This was in a very, very Republican state, and that's not where the fall elections will be determining whether Republicans keep their hold on the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, or whether Democrats take over. But it was nonetheless a good night for Trump.

Starting point is 00:03:46 He showed that he could get voters out and get them out for the candidate that he wanted. Canada will impose counterterrorism. of up to 15, 25 or 50% on 27.6 billion in imports from the United States of America. Canadian Finance Minister Francois Philippe Champagne hitting back in the trade fight with the United States. Canada's levees will begin on September 8th. Ottawa is also rolling out a multi-billion dollar support package for businesses and workers caught in the dispute. And as our Canada economics correspondent, Pramate Mukherjee explains,

Starting point is 00:04:25 Trump's new tariffs are relatively narrow, affecting roughly 5% of Canada's exports to the United States. But their impact could be severe. The real story is what happens to those individual sectors, which are already ravaged, let's say by wildfires or by previous tariffs. For example, wood products or wine manufacturing. And usually when these tariffs impact happens, we say that this will be narrow or broad. But what we actually tend to not miss out is that the real impact happens in terms of, certainty. Like, there is no certainty for businesses whether they should invest, no certainty for workers, whether they should invest in a house, whether they should go for a holiday.

Starting point is 00:05:02 Meanwhile, President Trump has launched a new salvo in the rift, saying in a true social post, he's considering renaming Lake Ontario, Lake America, is one of the five great lakes along the border of the two nations. At the lake itself, some Canadians like Mila Pavlou say they weren't impressed with the idea. His behavior is just to drag attention. And I don't think it's It's going to happen. It's not that we're going to let it happen. Iran says it's restarted talks with neighbor Oman to manage the strata for Muz, with the two countries saying they discussed a joint temporary navigational corridor through the waterway and agreed to clear it of minds.

Starting point is 00:05:47 The renewed talks come as New Reuters calculations show that nearly half of the world's oil now come from countries mirrored in conflict. But major conflicts like the US and Israeli attacks in Iran and the Russia-Ukraine war have disrupted oil flows, An ongoing conflict in Libya and US restrictions on Venezuelan exports add to the strain. In total, Reuters estimates about 45 million barrels per day come from regions impacted by conflict, representing roughly 43% of global oil production. In one of those conflicts, the war between Russia and Ukraine, the front lines have become

Starting point is 00:06:21 a no-man's land, filled with drones and mines. Known as the Kill Zone, even injured or carried back to safety on unmanned remote transport. called land drones. But earlier this month, when a Russian aerial drone immobilized one of the medical transports, stranding two wounded soldiers, one Ukrainian commander, Vladislav Polsky, a former science teacher, jumped into action. Seeing the stranded soldiers on a surveillance monitor, he ran to a civilian pickup truck, not stopping to grab protective gear. In just a t-shirt and shorts, Polsky raced around 15 kilometers or nine miles to the men.

Starting point is 00:06:59 He says they were terrified, but conscious. One had crawled into the ditch for cover, with the other remained strapped to the transport. Polsky hoisted both men into the back of the truck and raced back to safety, evading inbound Russian drones. The rescue earned him Ukraine's highest military honor, hero of Ukraine, presented to him by President Vladimir Zelensky at this week's Independence Day celebrations in Kiev.

Starting point is 00:07:27 Polsky says that even as a war evolves in the use of these unmanned transports minimizes some danger, there are limits to what remote technology can do. Sticking with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, U.S. media outlets have reported that CIA director John Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow on Tuesday for meetings with Russian officials. The CIA declined to comment, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov neither confirmed nor denied the report, telling Reuters President Vladimir Putin, did not plan to have a meeting with Ratcliffe. The US has no ambassador to Russia,

Starting point is 00:08:02 which maintains a close strategic partnership with Iran involving extensive military, economic and diplomatic ties. Imagine losing electricity in your home and still not having it back. Two weeks later, that's exactly what thousands of people in Gary, Indiana, are living through after deadly storms swept through earlier this month.

Starting point is 00:08:22 People that we lost during this power outage, at least get $800 worth of meat down in there Gary resident Deltrick Wright says the blackout forced him to throw out food and left his family struggling his block remains in the dark while some homes nearby have electricity

Starting point is 00:08:42 state officials reported nearly 10,000 outages across northwest Indiana as of Monday nights and utility provider Nipsco says it's working to complete restoration work quickly but as reporter Eric Cox explains residents and Gary want answers. On August 11th, a deadly powerful storm ripped through the area, knocking down trees and power lines, leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity. Although most of those people have gotten their power back on by now, many here in Gary are still left waiting in the dark.

Starting point is 00:09:17 No lights, no air conditioning, no hot showers, no refrigerator, not even a way to charge your phone. that's the reality for thousands of people here in Gary, Indiana. More than 75% of Gary's population is black, according to the latest census data, and many residents here wonder why several nearby towns had their power restored days ago while they're still here waiting. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis and news shaping our world,

Starting point is 00:09:50 check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. There's a link in the description to download it and start getting pure news straight from the source. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week.

Starting point is 00:10:05 We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headlines show.

Reuters World News - Dolly Parton, Darline Graham, Canada and Ukraine's 'kill zone'

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.