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Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80. She was a singer, the celebrity, a humanitarian, a sex symbol. A writer and a storyteller, and we tell her story. I'm Steve Enscape with Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NBR News.
President Trump put new tariffs on Canadian goods, and now Canada is answering.
It's putting tariffs on about $20 billion worth
of American products, like dairy steel, and protein powder. Talks fell apart, and neither side is backing down. And the Trump administration is moving to revoke nearly 200,000 visas.
It says it's cracking down on people who came as tourists then claimed asylum. But some immigration lawyers say the move may be more show than substance.
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“There are so many aspects of Dalai Parton's life”
to celebrate and more in today. Her talents as a singer, songwriter, and musician, her philanthropy, her career as a business woman, theme park owner. She died yesterday in Nashville at the age of 80.
According to a statement from a representative, she had recently been diagnosed with cancer. She joined her own life for some of her most popular songs, like Joleen, which was inspired by a bank teller who seemed to have a crush on her husband.
Joleen, Joleen, Joleen, Joleen, Joleen, Joleen, Joleen, I'm begging of you, please don't take my man. Julie Hyde, who's been covering the music scene for decades from Nashville and with WPLN, is here to talk with us about Parton's contributions
to country music and American culture. Good morning, Julie. Good morning. It's hard to sum up what she meant to people, but we're going to try, have a go at it.
Yes, well, you know, if she had spent her entire life strictly focusing on her career in country music,
“she would have still been one of the most important singer”
songwriters in modern country history. And she gave us Joleen, as we just heard,
"Code of Many Colors, I will always love you,
so many other enduring songs." But she really fashioned a career that transcended country music without leaving her countryness behind and had huge mainstream pop hits.
She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, invented into Hollywood's start-up as a magnetic actor with great comedic instincts. But ultimately, her fame was so expansive, you know, her appeal was so universal
that she just became a ubiquitous American icon and an embodiment of both authenticity and artifice of staying true to her roots and making good on her ambitions on this grand scale. So, Dali was really like a prism
who reflected all of these different facets to what each and every person saw in her, all of these different qualities. So, where did the Dali story begin? Really in East Tennessee, in the Smoky Mountains,
well outside of severeville, kind of a remote spot picture, 12 kids in a rustic cabin, a family that subsisted on what they could farm and their resourcefulness. And at the same time, she was there nurturing her dreams of performing and writing songs appearing on local radio.
And as soon as she got out of high school, she headed to Nashville, tried to establish herself, not just as a singer, but as a songwriter too, which was hard for women to do in the '60s. And her songs really began to hit
when she found a way to draw stories and lessons and characters and scenes from those humble Appalachian roots. And code of many colors is a fantastic example. ♪ My code of many colors that I'm only for me ♪ ♪ Made only progress but I weren't so proud of you ♪
♪ Although we had no money ♪ ♪ Why was rich as I could be ♪
♪ In my code of many colors ♪
♪ My mama made for me ♪ - I take your point that Dali sort of her fame and her, what she meant to people really transcendent genre. But what did she mean to country music,
“specifically over the course of her very long career?”
- Well, she fleshed out the template for not only country crossing over to pop without losing its identity, but for a country person persona thriving in Hollywood and then she kept her Appalachian roots so colorfully front and center and dress them up
with her love of glitz and glam and her clever self-awareness. But beyond that, I mean, she really made country music feel expansive enough to have global appeal and all encompassing enough so that it could connect
with traditionalists as well as people who feel like they have been shut out and marginalized. You know, she made it feel like it excludes no one. Like it makes room for people who love slick pop songs
and people who love the most down-home close to the roots version of country music and that it tells stories of coming from humble rural origins and taking pride in that and dreaming big that really people all over the globe can see themselves in
in these songs that she wrote. - That is Julie Hyatt, up to you, PLN and National. Julie, thank you so much. You are so welcome. (gentle music)
- Canada is striking back in a trade war with the United States.
- The country plans to raise tariffs on almost $20 billion
worth of U.S. products in two weeks. That mirrors President Trump's latest import taxes on Canadian products. - And Pierre Steven Besah has following all this and how this is affecting businesses
on both sides of the border, come on Steven. - Good morning. How wide spread are these Canadian tariffs? - Yeah, it's pretty wide. I mean, they're about 700 American products on this list.
So I'm getting tariffed as much as 50%. We are talking steel and aluminum to dairy and toilet paper. Also agricultural equipment and American motorcycles, lots of fish even protein powders on there. - Okay, this actually seems like kind of a random collection
of goods.
“So how do we know how they ended up with this list?”
- Yeah, Canada basically chose these goods so they would add up to a specific amount.
Close to $20 billion worth of U.S. exports
in the Canada each year. It is not a coincidence that this is also the value of goods. The U.S. is terrifying coming out of Canada. That list stretches from hockey sticks to wine to fall speared. So also pretty seemingly random collection.
This is all part of a tit-for-tat back and forth after training negotiations between the two sides fell apart on Friday. Leaders from both countries are also taking verbal shots at each other.
President Trump accuses Canada of ripping off the U.S. with longstanding trade restrictions on US goods, like cars, planes, and cheese. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for his part, accused the U.S. of making last-minute changes
in the trade talks that he said were unfair and un-economic. And this is also a rare example of a foreign leader standing up and opposing Trump, rather than trying to appease him. - Okay, so let's take this on both sides.
What do these latest tariffs mean for the U.S.?
- Well, 20 billion won't have a huge impact
on the U.S. economy. A Canada will feel a little bit more because they're economy smaller. And these goods aren't targeting like some of the biggest exports and imports
between these countries. But if the trade war ratchets up and brings in other goods, like American cars and Canadian oil, that could have a much bigger effect. But for businesses who've been dealing with a year
and a half of tariff ups and downs now, this is a lot of uncertainty. Like I was talking with Mark Boker. He owns old-to-ego comics in Lima, Ohio. And when he's ordering action figures for a store,
that can require ordering them 18 months in advance. - If that dollar amount is going to change and what either the customer has to pay or what I'm being charged by my supplier, that makes things significantly more difficult.
- Really impossible to plan around all these tariff changes. He's also worried about tariffs possibly hitting comics. They are not in the list yet, but most comics are exported from Canada. So if the trade war keeps ratcheting up comics
and with them Mark's shop could get dragged in, just like things like track suits and wallpaper got dragged in. - Like who knew that most comics are exported from Canada?
- Yeah, right, let's put me. - Right. So the Supreme Court ruled that some of Trump's tariffs were illegal back in February.
“So what is the legal justification for his latest tariffs?”
- Yeah, the Supreme Court ruled Trump's broadest tariff tool was illegal and shouldn't have been used in the first place. So the president's grasping at other trade laws to try and rebuild his tariff options.
In this case, he's using Section 338 of the Trade Act of 1930.
Don't worry about remembering those specific numbers
in that name, but do remember that let's Trump put up
to 50% tariffs on countries who discriminate against US trade. Now this tariff law could also face legal challenges, but don't expect the courts to act fast. So for now, we are stuck in an escalating trade war without any sign of compromise.
That is, NPR-Steven Basajas, Steven, thank you. - Thank you. (upbeat music) - That Trump administration is preparing to revoke up to 200,000 immigration visas.
- 200,000 if the United States really revoked that many, it would be the largest revocation effort in US history. Immigration attorneys are questioning how much it would really affect immigrants. NPR immigration corresponded to say a heo martina spiltron
is here now to talk more about this, money set here. - Good morning, Michelle.
“- So why does the government want to revoke so many visas?”
- The Trump administration says they are tackling immigration fraud and the state department is working with the department of Homeland Security to identify and revoke the visas of immigrants who came to the US for tourism and business
and later claimed asylum. Don't pick out a spokesperson for the state department says getting a visa to the later Sica asylum is fraud. - And that's because people applying for a tourist visa have to say why they're coming to the US
and the government is arguing that if the person did not tell the immigration officer they were planning on claiming asylum, they have essentially lied and that's enough to revoke visa. - Do you have a sense of how many people will be affected?
- You know, big obsessed 200,000 revocations will not happen in one false swoop but on a rolling basis. Still, Michelle, for many immigration attorneys, this latest move is performative.
Here's what California-based attorney Nicolette Glaser told me.
- To me, this is a completely empty effort. It doesn't have any consequences. The way I understand the law and the way the law has been applied since at least I started practicing,
which was about 25 years ago.
“This revocation of a visa has zero relevance”
for anything that can happen on this side of the entry, meaning with prospective status and applications for everything like that. - If an immigrant overstated short-term visa they're already breaking the law.
So this new policy is just revoking visas that are already invalid. - So Sergio, circling back to something the administration has said regarding fraud is a true that fraud is rampant in immigration.
- So fraud does happen in the immigration system. People sometimes misrepresent material facts to get a benefit or a status. They would not be eligible for otherwise. And there's this narrative out there
that people apply for asylum to by time and be able to eventually adjust their status. But even a report from the government accountability office from 2015 shows that termination of asylum cases to fraud are extremely rare.
The city department, though, has been using the specific case of Beto Coral.
“He said Colombia National who came to the US in 2015.”
And a few months before he stayed was said to expire, he applied for asylum. Something to point out is that Coral is an activist and a lot of his activism revolved around the Colombian presidential elections.
He supported the leftist candidate and he spoke out against the right wing candidate. Now president, I will add a little less piaia who was backed by the Trump administration. - But that suggests that people status could change
while they're here, couldn't it? I mean, that circumstances could lead them to become targeted in such a way that would lead them to apply for asylum. But having said that could this policy change lead to more people being arrested?
- Yeah, for the last year and a half the Trump administration has been trying to arrest detained and deport us. Many immigrants as possible, even when they are legally present in the US or in the process of adjusting their status.
Last month, we showed that the Trump administration arrested nearly 50,000 immigrants
that some monthly record in the second Trump term
according to an analysis by the Associated Press of arrest data. Many of these arrests have happened through partnerships between ICE and local law enforcement agencies across the country, which is a low profile strategy
that has proven to be very effective. - That is, and shall I say a little bit to you in this book, John, I'll say a little thank you. - You're welcome. (upbeat music)
- And that's up first for Wednesday, August 26th, I'm Michelle Martin. - And I'm Steve Innscape. Today's up first was edited by Jacob Gans, Rafael Nam. Alina Hartunian, Muhammad Elbar DC and Alice Wolfley.
He was produced by Julie Depp and Brock and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes and our technical director, also very supportive, is Carly Strage. Our supervising producer is Michael Lipkin.
He's pretty supportive too, to Ernest Amar. (upbeat music)
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Go inside the stories from then that shape the world we live in now.
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“if we can make Penicillin of moldy bread,”
we can do something with you. Please use your comedy for good. Why don't you become a comedian? - Watch or listen to that wildcard conversation on the NPR app or on YouTube at NPR wildcard.
