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Good morning, it's Wednesday, Aug. 26. Americans are mourning country music legend Dolly Parton. First time reading? Join over 4.7 million insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.
Also in today's Digest: the prevalence of CTE in football (Need To Know), AI song tops charts (Sports, Ent., & Cult.), how female and male mice respond to loneliness (Sci. & Tech.), the CIA director in Moscow (Pol. & World Affairs), and much more.
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Need To Know
Dolly Parton Dies
Country music legend Dolly Parton died yesterday at age 80 after a battle with cancer. The singer-songwriter, actor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist published about 3,000 musical titles, including 25 No. 1 country hits like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You.” See the stories behind some of her greatest hits.
Parton was born in 1946 in East Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children in a home without electricity or plumbing. She wrote her first song at age 5 and began singing on the radio and TV by age 10. In 1967, she was hired to sing on the country variety TV program "The Porter Wagoner Show," propelling her solo career (watch her first-day performance). Parton was the top-ranked female country singer from 1967 to 1993 and starred in multiple films, including “9 to 5” (for which she wrote the theme song), “Steel Magnolias,” and “Straight Talk.”
She opened her theme park, Dollywood, in 1986 and launched the Imagination Library in 1995—delivering more than 200 million books to children across the US. Scroll to explore fascinating resources 1440 staff has collected about Parton.
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Canadian Countertariffs
Canada yesterday announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on roughly $20B in US goods, including steel, cheese, and seafood (see official list). The tariffs take effect Sept. 8, straining one of the world's largest trading relationships, with more than $2B in goods crossing the US-Canada border daily.
The move comes after the Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20B in Canadian imports Saturday, following failed trade talks. Negotiators reportedly clashed over US tariffs on Canadian automobiles and Washington’s demands to review Canada's trade deals with other countries, among other items. A prolonged dispute could raise costs for Americans, but experts say Canada is likely to feel a greater impact given that its economy is roughly one-twelfth the size of the US economy. Canadian officials have announced several measures to support domestic industries, including interest-free loans.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said yesterday he was considering renaming Lake Ontario, one of the five official Great Lakes, “Lake America.” See map here.
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🫶 Humankind: Firefighters rappel over 100 feet down a cliff to rescue a dog stranded for 17 hours.
NFL's CTE Risk
At least one in four former NFL players who died from 2016 to 2021 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, according to a study published yesterday, shedding new light on the degenerative brain disease’s prevalence in professional football.
Researchers identified all 878 former players who died during the six-year period and had appeared in at least one league game, 235 of whom donated their brains for research. Of those donors, 215 (or 91%) had CTE, a disease associated with repeated head impacts that can only be definitively diagnosed after death. Researchers used the full group of deceased players to estimate prevalence, putting the minimum at 24.5% and the theoretical maximum at 97.7%, with the true prevalence likely falling somewhere between the two. CTE has also been found in athletes in hockey, soccer, rugby, boxing, and other contact sports.
Watch how repeated head impacts can lead to CTE, and visualize the spatial distribution of head hits across 38 collegiate football players over a season.
In The Know
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Serena Williams returns to the US Open alongside No. 2 men's singles tennis player Carlos Alcaraz in mixed doubles, winning in the first round but falling in the quarterfinals (More) | Spouses Elina Svitolina and Gaël Monfils reach the semifinals (More)
> Australia's music industry bars songs wholly generated by AI from official charts; comes after an AI cover of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" spent 16 weeks in the Australian top 20 (More) | Listen here (More)
> Saudi Arabia to fund $7B theme park campus north of Paris, with one park inspired by popular Japanese anime series, "Dragon Ball Z" (More) | See historic "Dragon Ball Z" cover art (More)
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Science & Technology
> Two unvaccinated people die of measles in Pennsylvania, marking the first US deaths caused by the disease this year (More) | National caseload has already surpassed the 2,289 documented in 2025 (More, scroll for map tracker)
> Apple debuts the M5 Ultra, which it deems to be its most powerful chip yet, designed for 3D rendering, visual effects, and advanced AI workloads (More)
> Loneliness appears to rewire male mice's brains to crave alcohol while reducing alcohol consumption in females; scientists believe a similar brain circuit may exist in humans (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.3%, Dow +0.3%, Nasdaq +0.7%) ahead of Nvidia earnings report today (More) | Consumer confidence index falls to lowest level in seven months, Conference Board survey reveals (More)
> Dick's Sporting Goods shares drop 30.7% after second-quarter results missed expectations and prompted the company to cut its profit forecast (More)
> Lego reports record first-half revenue of roughly $6.5B, climbing 21% from a year ago as FIFA and F1 sets attract new customers (More) | How the toy brand uses licensing deals and media to expand its audience (More, via YouTube)
Politics & World Affairs
> Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, defeats primary challenge to appear on November ballot, boosted by endorsement from President Donald Trump (More)
> Federal watchdog report finds FEMA workers illegally skipped 11 homes with pro-Trump signs during recovery efforts for Hurricane Milton in 2024 (More, scroll to "latest reports")
> CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly visits Moscow for unannounced meetings; purpose of talks is unclear (More)
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Etcetera
Countries ranked by the number of paid days off.
Harvard agrees to $53M settlement over sold body parts.
Someone recreated Mazda's 1991 suitcase motorcycle.
Explore why cohorts of Americans are not working. (w/graphs)
A look inside Tokyo's sightseeing sushi bus.
Watch robot beat its own record for the 100-meter race. (via YouTube)
Waves off the Portuguese town of Nazaré can reach 100 feet.
Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte has returned, among menu updates.
The rise of the Premier League jersey economy.
In partnership: One more day: the company making coal up to 10X more valuable got a Nasdaq ticker.*
Clickbait: Some people enjoy spending 22 hours on a subway.
Historybook: Mother Teresa born (1910); 19th Amendment, granting US women right to vote, takes effect (1920); First televised Major League Baseball game (1939); 13 US military personnel, more than 169 Afghans killed during suicide bombing at Kabul airport (2021); Television host Bob Barker dies (2023).
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