TIME magazine is reporting that country-music icon Dolly Parton died Tuesday at age 80 in Nashville after a brief battle with cancer. It said Parton, known for writing over 3,000 songs and gifting more than 300 million books to children through her Imagination Library, was described as "American royalty." Her nephew and bodyguard Bryan Seaver announced her death via Instagram, stating she was "in the arms of Jesus." TIME highlighted Parton's ability to channel everyday sorrows into song, addressing topics like stillborn births, suicide, and prostitution with a woman's voice and heart.
The magazine also reported that Google won a bankruptcy auction with a $10 million bid for the corporate data of Spirit Airlines, which ceased operations in May. It said the data cache includes 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams messages, and approximately 30 million lines of code. TIME noted that AI companies are competing to develop the best AI coding agents, and while public code is abundant for training, other white-collar work requires private data like corporate emails and chats, which could significantly impact the labor market.
In political news, TIME said Darline Graham Nordone won the runoff for the special Republican primary election in South Carolina to replace her late brother, Lindsey Graham, on the November general election ballot. The Associated Press called the race as Nordone led with about 52.5% of the vote. Nordone expressed mixed emotions about her victory, stating she misses her brother but believes he would be proud.
Additionally, TIME reported that a "blood moon" lunar eclipse will be visible to much of the world on the evening of Aug. 27. It said 96% of the full moon's face will fall into Earth's shadow, causing it to glow a deep orange-red. The eclipse is expected to begin at 9:23 p.m. ET on Aug. 27 and conclude at 3:01 a.m. ET the following day in the U.S.