Dolly Parton, Darline Graham, Canada and Ukraine's 'kill zone'

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. Darlene 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. This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. For 125 years, Nordstrom has been part of your story. The stylist who found the perfect outfit for your big interview. The first pair of walking shoes for your one-year-old. The tomato soup you shared with your sister at the cafe. These are the moments that make Nordstrom, Nordstrom. Big or small, we're here for all of it. And I've been writing songs all of my life, and this beats the heck out of standing up on a hill above the barn singing to the cows and the chickens and the pigs. 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 a high speed. The Empire State Building lighting up in pink in her honour. And singer Beyonce posting online that you were the barometer, the North Star. 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. 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 Darlene Graham has won the Republican primary runoff for the U.S. Senate, according to U.S. media projections. The win for the sister of late Senator Lindsey Graham is a triumph for President Donald Trump, who endorsed her candidacy and backed that up with large campaign contributions from his MAGA Inc. super PAC. 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 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 to be wanting some of the money that his political PAC. But Richard says it may be too soon to read anything wider into the win 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. He showed that he could get voters out and get them out for those. I think that's the candidate that he wanted. Canada will impose counter tariffs of up to 15, 25 or 50 percent on 27.6 billion in imports from the United States of America. Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne hitting back in a trade fight with the United States. Canada's levies 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 Pramit Mukherjee explains, Trump's new tariffs are relatively narrow, affecting roughly 5 percent 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 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. 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. It's one of the five great lakes along the border of the two nations. At the lake itself, some Canadians like Mila Pavluk say they weren't impressed with the idea. His behavior is just to draw attention. And I don't think it's going to happen. It's not that we're going to let it happen. Celebrating 125 years with new moments still ahead. Discover it all in Nordstrom stores and at Nordstrom.com. Iran says it's restarted talks with neighbor Oman to manage the Strait of Hormuz, with the two countries saying they discussed a joint temporary navigational corridor through the waterway and agreed to clear it of mines. The renewed talks come as new Reuters calculations show that nearly half of the world's oil now come from countries mirrored in conflict. While 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 a no-man's land, filled with drones and mines. Known as the kill zone, even injured are carried back to safety on unmanned remote transports, 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 km, or 9 miles, to the men. He says they were terrified, but conscious. One had crawled into the ditch for cover, while 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 Volodymyr Zelensky at this week's Independence Day celebrations in Kyiv. Polsky says that even as a war evolves and 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 Dmitry Peskov neither confirmed nor denied the report, telling Reuters President Vladimir Putin did not plan to have a meeting with Ratcliffe. The U.S. has no ambassador to Russia, 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. 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. State officials reported nearly 10,000 outages across northwest Indiana as of Monday night, and utility provider Nipsco says it's working to complete restoration work quickly. But, as reporter Eric Cox explains, residents in Gary want answers. 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. 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, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. There's a link in the description below. And don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. 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