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The country music legend died Tuesday in Nashville following what her representatives described as a brief battle with cancer, with the type undisclosed. Her nephew Bryan Seaver announced the news, and tributes have poured in all day from Nashville and beyond. Parton famously refused to pick political sides for decades and twice declined the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying she was an entertainer, not a politician.
The justices voted 6-3 Monday to lift a Massachusetts judge's block on Trump's March executive order on citizenship verification in federal elections, freeing the policy in 23 states plus D.C. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson fired off a blistering 23-page dissent calling it a "serious legal error" that "needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections." Justice Sotomayor filed a separate dissent joined by Justice Kagan.
Communications chief Anthony Guglielmi and two other officials in the agency's communications office were placed on administrative leave and stripped of security clearances and work devices. Sources say the three were escorted from their offices Monday as part of a criminal investigation into classified information leaked to the media, with the FBI and CIA also involved. It comes roughly a month after an agent on Vice President Vance's detail faced a similar leak inquiry.
The July PCE price index showed the underlying pace of inflation remained soft, easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to hike at its September meeting. Second-quarter GDP held at 1.5%, boosted by consumer spending revised up to 3.4%. The catch: war-driven energy costs pushed the GDP price index to 6.4%, and the national average gas price sits at $4.10 a gallon today.
The U.S. Navy has removed or detonated all mines from international waters in the Strait of Hormuz, capping a months-long operation and reopening the main shipping corridor between Iran and Oman. Trump said Wednesday the strait is "very functioning," with 10 million barrels moving through on Tuesday, and warned of a zero-tolerance policy on new mine placement backed by Space Force surveillance. Oil dipped to a two-week low after Tehran and Muscat floated a phased joint navigation framework.
Ukraine's president said his country is counting on further cooperation with China and on Beijing playing a "strong diplomatic role" in ending Russia's invasion, posting that "peace can be our shared achievement." The appeal follows a massive overnight Russian barrage of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones on Kyiv that killed at least 16 and injured more than 40, damaging a high-rise, a children's hospital and a school. Zelenskyy is also pressing allies for more Patriot interceptors, noting deliveries this year are running at about a third of last year's pace.
Dutch national broadcaster AVROTROS announced it is pulling out of the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest, with Director-General Taco Zimmerman saying the event "has become a platform for division." The Netherlands joins Iceland, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia in withdrawing, with three of those also refusing to air the show at all. The 71st contest is still set for Burgas, Bulgaria, with the Grand Final on May 15.
Meta will pay at least $12.1 billion over ten years to settle claims from 51 states and territories that Facebook and Instagram addicted and harmed children, with another $5 billion added if rival platforms adopt comparable youth protections. Teen accounts will default to a combined two-hour daily limit with nighttime blocks and new security tools. Meta denies wrongdoing and the deal still needs court approval.
President Trump will award the medal to NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, plus Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, at a Friday ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston. At their farthest point the crew reached 252,756 miles from Earth, breaking the human spaceflight distance record Apollo 13 set back in 1970.
Dan J. Sullivan Jr. officially advanced to the general election Wednesday despite finishing a distant third with under 2.5%, joining incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan at just under 43% and front-runner Mary Peltola at 48%. The two Sullivans are unrelated and will be distinguished only by middle initials on a ranked-choice ballot. The Justice Department has issued grand jury subpoenas over whether the second Sullivan entered the race specifically to confuse voters.
