The US and Canada could pull back from an all-out trade war. It's not clear that they will

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and Canada have ramped up their trade war, hitting each other with steep new tit-for-tat tariffs. Despite the bravado coming from both sides of the border, though, analysts suspect the longtime allies will eventually strike a deal to end a conflict neither really wants.

The prospects for compromise looked bleak Tuesday, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reacting to new 50% U.S. tariffs on certain Canadian goods by responding in kind on about $20 billion worth of American imports, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment.

"You're at war when you get attacked. We got attacked,'' Carney, who came to power last year on the promise that he'd stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump, said over the weekend.

Doug Ford, Ontario’s populist premier, told The Associated Press on Monday that he was ready to escalate even further by cutting off his province’s shipments of electricity and critical minerals to the United States.

Soon after, Trump declared his intention to hammer the Canadian auto industry with another set of import taxes if the Canadians don’t “fall in line.’’

Darline Graham wins South Carolina GOP nomination to replace her late brother in US Senate

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Darline Graham won the Republican nomination to replace her late brother on South Carolina’s general election ballot, notching another win for President Donald Trump after he threw his support behind the political novice.

Graham defeated U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman in Tuesday’s special Republican primary runoff, two weeks after they were the top two finishers in a 10-way primary.

Despite being a political unknown, Graham bested some of South Carolina’s top political names in the special election spun up after Lindsey Graham's sudden death last month. She was appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster to serve out the remaining months of her late brother’s current term and swiftly won an endorsement from Trump, who encouraged her to enter the race for a full term and campaigned for her in the state last week.

Graham got emotional while addressing her supporters Tuesday night, saying she misses her brother every day.

“The past few weeks have been an unbelievably challenging time for our family, but you know what? We did it,” she said.

Republican with same name as incumbent Dan Sullivan advances from Alaska US Senate primary

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A candidate with the same name as Alaska’s incumbent U.S. senator advanced Tuesday to the general election in what will be one of the most closely watched races in the country this fall.

Dan J. Sullivan, who goes by Dan Sullivan, was among the top four finishers after the Aug. 18 primary and moved on to the November matchup, which is a ranked choice contest. The incumbent, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola also have advanced.

The challenger Sullivan, a retired teacher from the island community of Petersburg, sued for a spot on the ballot and succeeded after a judge invalidated a decision by a top state elections official who said he had filed his candidacy with an intent to confuse voters. The allegation was driven by claims raised by the senator and his GOP allies. The state Supreme Court ultimately ordered Dan J. Sullivan eligible for the ballot.

While the challenger sought to appear on the ballot as Republican Dan J. Sullivan, the Division of Elections listed him as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation. The senator was listed as Dan S. Sullivan, Republican and incumbent.

A call seeking comment from the challenger was not immediately returned Tuesday, and emails to campaign staff for the senator also were not immediately returned.

Dolly Parton, music star, actor and beloved figure who spanned generations, dies at 80 of cancer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Dolly Parton, the country music icon whose soaring vibrato vocals, poignant songwriting and sparkling costumes defined her rise from a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains to the height of stardom and acclaim, has died in Nashville. She was 80 years old.

“After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” her publicist, Marcel Pariseau, said in a statement Tuesday.

Known for her curvy physique, massive blond wigs and skin-tight outfits that served her self-deprecating wit, she was among the most beloved personalities in music and beyond — the rare celebrity whose appeal transcended generations, geography and politics.

She wrote hundreds of songs, including classics like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” that totaled more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams. Parton, who plucked bejeweled banjos, guitar and dulcimers with her long fingernails during performances, was a generous philanthropist and successful businesswoman whose projects included a theme park in the Smoky Mountain foothills near her birthplace.

Her career was forever influenced by her upbringing as one of 12 children born into what she called a “dirt poor” Tennessee family. She started her education nonprofit, Imagination Library, to send free books to children in Tennessee because her father, who quit school to work on the farm, struggled to learn to read.

Dolly Parton built a better world, with rhinestones and songs

NEW YORK (AP) — There are few inalienable truths: Everyone was born, everyone will die, and everyone loved Dolly Parton.

Larger-than-life at 5-foot-nothing, the country star, actor, philanthropist, entrepreneur and theme park enthusiast who died Tuesday, transcended celebrity in rhinestones and fringe. She was embraced by fans across gender, race and class, embodying a mythology typically inaccessible to even the most influential historical figures.

It’s hard to name a more adored artist — one who could deliver a perfectly timed dirty joke seconds before a folk classic of her own composition. (This is where, if Parton were reading along, a self-deprecating quip would come in — lest anyone forget she was a whip-smart jokester, too.)

Throughout her endeavors, Parton worked to build a better world, while becoming inextricable from the American imagination. It is one of her greatest legacies: to take what you have and help someone with it.

In 2015, when Parton returned to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Grand Ole Opry announcer Bill Cody introduced her as “the most beloved artist of all time,” quickly amending it to “female artist.” As history has proven, he was correct the first time.

ICE agent charged with shooting in Minnesota could be released from Texas jail

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — An ICE agent charged in Minnesota with firing his gun through a house door, striking a man in his leg, and then lying to justify the shooting, could walk out of a South Texas jail on Thursday if a federal judge does not intervene.

Christian Castro, an agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 wounding of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Minnesota authorities have been seeking to have him extradited since his arrest, but he remains in custody in Brownsville, Texas, a city bordering Mexico.

Texas law says he must be released after 90 days of detention, which is Thursday. Minnesota’s governor and attorney general filed a lawsuit asking a judge to compel Texas to return Castro to their state and to keep the Cameron County sheriff from releasing him until his extradition.

Castro is accused of firing a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg with a bullet that lodged in a child’s bedroom wall. Prosecutors say Castro then falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.

At a federal hearing held Tuesday afternoon in Brownsville before U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, Jr., attorneys with Minnesota’s Attorney General's Office argued it would be hard to compel Castro to face charges in their state if he is released, and even harder if he flees.

In a divided America, the left and right unite to oppose artificial intelligence data centers

MURDOCK, Neb. (AP) — In rural eastern Nebraska, a technology revolution could rise from fields of corn and soybean in the form of new data centers to power the artificial intelligence boom.

But just like around many parts of the country, opposition has been building in ways that defy typical partisan boundaries. Conservative farmers and the state Sierra Club chapter recently found common cause against labor leaders as they filled the firehouse in Murdock — population around 275 — to share concerns about data center development moving too quickly.

The scene exemplified an unlikely coalition that worries about dwindling farmland, declining water supplies and rising electricity bills — not to mention how massive corporations could reshape small town America into nodes in a national network of computing warehouses.

The debate around data center projects is one of the rare modern issues to cut across party lines, demographics and geography — from Republican-dominated Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming to swing-state Pennsylvania to Democratic-leaning New Mexico.

Supporters of data centers, including Republican President Donald Trump and some union leaders who usually back Democrats, praise a potential jobs and economic bonanza, while helping the U.S. thwart China in the geopolitical race for technological supremacy.

A Montana man killed 8 relatives, including 4 kids, at Sunday dinner, family says

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A man killed eight of his relatives, including four children, as they gathered for Sunday dinner at a home outside Billings, Montana, weeks after his parents asked him to move out, a family member told The Associated Press.

Brad Ireland, whose former wife and two children were among the dead, identified the shooter as 44-year-old Alan Smith. Smith's parents, who were also killed, had asked him to move out, but he returned on Sunday and opened fire, Ireland said.

The victims represented four generations of the blended family, ranging from a great-grandmother in her 90s who used a wheelchair to a 7-year-old girl, according to Jennifer Mercer, a neighbor and family friend who set up an online fundraiser to help cover funeral costs and other expenses, and was authorized to release these details.

Police responded to the home on Sunday evening and heard gunshots coming from out back, just before the house was completely engulfed in flames. Investigators confirmed Tuesday there were eight victims, including four children, and that the suspect had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and later died.

The investigation has been complicated by concerns about the structural integrity of the house after the fire burned it to its foundation, said Jeff Stovall, a spokesperson for the Billings Police Department.

Trump's new economic squeeze on Iran has a big challenge: China

WASHINGTON (AP) — The “ economic onslaught ” that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has declared on Iran's financial connections around the world may have one major caveat: China.

Beijing is Iran's biggest trading partner and its leading oil buyer. While the U.S. is trying to isolate the Islamic Republic from its remaining economic partners, President Donald Trump also is preparing to host Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month to maintain a fragile trade truce.

Absent from Bessent's remarks this week were specifics about how the Trump administration would target China, casting doubts on how effective the new campaign would be when the U.S. must balance putting maximum pressure on Iran and avoiding higher tensions with China that could be costly to the American economy.

“The announcement yesterday was very careful in my view to avoid specifics (against China), which could have led to a disruption in the summit,” Edgard Kagan, senior adviser and Freeman Chair in China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Tuesday. “For Xi, a state visit to Washington is a big deal; and for Trump, hosting it is a big deal.”

That means both Washington and Beijing will have a dance to do, said Kagan, who served as U.S. ambassador to Malaysia from December 2023 until this February.

Release of Marine veteran from Russian custody turns focus to other detainees with health concerns

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert Gilman’s release from Russian custody this month heralded a long-awaited homecoming for the Marine veteran after more than four years behind bars.

But as Harold Jezler followed the media coverage from the United States, he couldn’t help but notice Gilman’s gaunt and sickly appearance and think of the implications for his wife, Olga, who has been detained in Russia since 2022 and faces her own health problems.

“You just look at the pictures and the guy is not in good shape. It’s concerning for me and for all the families, I would imagine," Jezler said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Is this what it takes for the government to really make a move and prioritize this — that the person is basically in dire straits? It was a very bittersweet thing to see that."

Gilman is the latest in a succession of prisoners freed by Russia going back years, but his release hardly cleared the decks of Americans held there. Some who remain are grappling with medical problems and receiving what family members and advocates say is below-standard care, adding urgency to the calls for their release.

Among those jailed are a Navy veteran with gastrointestinal illness, a man with an autoimmune disease, another with severe dental damage and Olga Jezler, 36, who was diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition involving abnormal tissue growth from the uterus that can cause severe pain and infertility.