Two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Rod Stewart will perform what may be his final concert in the metro when he headlines the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

Tickets are priced from $184.75 to $86 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Etix or by phone at 800-514-3849. Richard Marx (“Don’t Mean Nothing,” “Right Here Waiting”) will open.

Known for his raspy, expressive singing voice, the 80-year-old Stewart first turned heads when he fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Faces, while his solo career took off with his chart-topping third album, 1971’s “Every Picture Tells a Story.” Many of the songs from his first decade in the business remain radio staples to this day, including “Maggie May,” “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” and “You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim).” While critics chided him for “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” Stewart continued to score hits through the early ’90s.

Stewart spent much of the ’00s recording five volumes of his “Great American Songbook” series of cover albums. In 2012, he published his autobiography and has since continued to release new music, including last year’s “Swing Fever,” a collaboration with British composer Jools Holland.

As a solo artist, Stewart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2012, he earned his second induction as a member of Faces. Last year, he embarked on what he’s calling his One Last Time tour, which will be his final large-scale outing. But Stewart plans to remain active and has a country album and a collection of new original songs in the works.

Stewart drew a crowd of about 8,500 to his most recent show in the metro in April 2022 at the former Xcel Energy Center.

“Weird Al” Yankovic was the first act announced for the 2026 Minnesota State Fair Grandstand series. He’ll perform Friday, Aug. 28.

Related Articles

Goo Goo Dolls, Toto/Christopher Cross and Avenged Sevenfold to play Shakopee amphitheater

Minnesota’s first Farm Aid raised more than $1.3 million for farmers

‘Tennessee Orange’ hitmaker Megan Moroney books Target Center show

Grammy-winning Mexican band Los Tigres Del Norte to headline Grand Casino Arena

Curtiss A moves his longtime John Lennon tribute show to St. Paul

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday her country intends to send more water to the United States but not immediately despite threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to raise tariffs by 5% on Mexican imports if more water is not delivered as part of a water-sharing agreement.

Sheinbaum said Mexico is proposing a water delivery this month and another one in the coming years. The proposal will be discussed in a virtual meeting with U.S. officials Tuesday, she said.

Related Articles

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, British zoologist and Save the Elephants founder, dies at 83

Hamas calls for more international pressure on Israel before ceasefire’s next phase

Trump’s ceasefire plan for the Israel-Hamas war faces pitfalls as it moves into a new phase

Google facing a new antitrust probe in Europe over content it uses for AI

UN says world must jointly tackle issues of climate change, pollution, biodiversity and land loss

Mexico is behind water deliveries to the United States from the Rio Grande River because of drought and pipeline limitations, Sheinbaum said.

Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico must deliver 1.7 million acre-feet of water to the U.S. from six tributaries every five years, or an average of 350,000 acre-feet every year. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover 1 acre of land to a depth of 1 foot.

Trump posted on social media Monday that Mexico has a water debt that has accumulated over five years and that is affecting farmers in Texas. He said that he has authorized a 5% increase on tariffs on Mexico if the water is not immediately released.

“The U.S needs Mexico to release 200,000 acre-feet of water before December 31st, and the rest must come soon after,” Trump wrote. “As of now, Mexico is not responding, and it is very unfair to our U.S. Farmers who deserve this much needed water.”

Trump first threatened tariffs over the water issue in April when he also threatened to impose 5% tariffs on Mexican imports and accused the country of continuing to violate the agreement.

The two countries have reached agreements on the issue in the past and the Mexican president said she hoped they would again find an understanding.

“We have the best intention to deliver the amount of water that is owed from previous years,” Sheinbaum said.

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI and ISABELLA O’MALLEY, Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Iain Douglas-Hamilton, a British-born zoologist and conservationist who dedicated much of his life to protecting elephants, has died, his Save the Elephants group said Tuesday. He was 83.

Douglas-Hamilton was known for decades of conservation work, which included pioneering trackers and collaring to protect elephants against poaching and the illegal ivory trade. He died on Monday in Kenya, the statement said.

FILE – Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton fits a Global Positioning System (GPS) beacon on a tranquilized elephant in the Meru National Park, Kenya, May 21, 1998. (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju)

Save the Elephants said he was “instrumental in exposing the ivory poaching crisis” and documenting the destruction of over half of Africa’s elephants in a single decade, “leading up to a crucial intergovernmental decision to ban the international trade in ivory in 1989.”

“Whether sitting quietly among elephants, poring over maps of their movements, or circling above a herd in his beloved aircraft, that glint in his eye was there,” the group’s CEO Frank Pope said.

“He never lost his lifelong curiosity about what was happening inside the minds of one of our planet’s most intriguing creatures,” Pope added.

Elephants use their ivory tusks — the elongated teeth on either side of an elephant’s mouth — for gathering food, digging and self-defense. But people have used ivory throughout history, including for weapons, jewelry, ornamentation and traditional medicinal purposes.

FILE – Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton climbs on top of a tranquilized elephant to put on a collar containing a Global Positioning System (GPS) beacon in the Meru National Park, Kenya, May 21,1998. (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju, File)

The Uganda Conservation Foundation eulogized Douglas-Hamilton as someone who “generously shared his knowledge and expertise with the conservation community, inspiring action and collaboration.”

“We honor a life that didn’t just protect elephants, but empowered the people protecting them,” the foundation said.

Douglas-Hamilton’s research was considered by many to be essential in the push to ban the international trade of ivory. But despite being outlawed in 1989 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, ivory demand continued driving African elephants towards extinction, and Douglas-Hamilton’s advocacy played a role in shuttering domestic markets in an array of countries in the 2010s.

FILE – Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton checks on his laptop computer the position of an elephant fitted with a Global Positioning System (GPS) beacon in the Meru National Park, Kenya, May 21, 1998. (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju, File)

During the 2010s, the Chinese government also took steps to halt ivory trade, including shutting down factories and retail outlets.

“With the end of the legal ivory trade in China, the survival chances for elephants have distinctly improved,” Douglas-Hamilton said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2017. “We must give credit to China for having done the right thing by closing the ivory trade.”

“There is still a long way to go to end the excessive killing of elephants for ivory, but there is now greater hope for the species,” Douglas-Hamilton said at the time.

Wildlife Conservation Network, which has Save the Elephants as a founding partner, said in a statement Tuesday that Douglas-Hamilton was a “giant in the field of conservation” and worked tirelessly to protect elephants.

“Iain was a pioneer and an icon. He was deeply respected, loved, and admired, and will be missed beyond words,” the network said.

Related Articles

Hamas calls for more international pressure on Israel before ceasefire’s next phase

Trump’s ceasefire plan for the Israel-Hamas war faces pitfalls as it moves into a new phase

Google facing a new antitrust probe in Europe over content it uses for AI

UN says world must jointly tackle issues of climate change, pollution, biodiversity and land loss

UN agency reports rise in violence against women journalists and activists linked to online abuse

Drought-related hunger can also be a cause of elephant fatalities. In 2009, Kenya experienced its worst drought in 12 years that created hazardous conditions and led to more than 100 elephant deaths.

“When (elephants) do not have enough food they also seem to be vulnerable to disease, their immune system weakens and they catch all sorts of diseases,” Douglas-Hamilton told the AP in 2009.

He was a close and longtime friend of famed primatologist Jane Goodall, who died in October at the age of 91.

Douglas-Hamilton is survived by his wife, Oria, their two daughters and six grandchildren.

O’Malley reported from Philadelphia.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

On a Wednesday in September, just hours before he would be officially introduced as a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame’s class of 2025, Zach Parise was on a Twin Cities golf course, playing a round alongside two other American hockey legends, Mike Modano and Jamie Langenbrunner.

Parise, who will be officially inducted into the USHHF on Wednesday night in St. Paul, said it was a surreal feeling to hear his name mentioned alongside players who were his heroes as a youth hockey player in Bloomington in the 1990s.

“We all loved the (North) Stars, and I was always a big Mike Modano guy, a big Neal Broten guy. These are the players I looked up to,” said Parise, 41, who retired in 2024 after more than 1,300 NHL games. “I wore number nine growing up. … So, to be side-by-side with those guys is special.”

Parise will be inducted into the Eveleth-based hall alongside renowned hockey photographer Bruce Bennett, long-time NHL player Scott Gomez, women’s hockey legend Tara Mounsey and former Wisconsin and NHL star Joe Pavelski.

The son of renowned Minnesota North Stars forward J.P. Parise, Zach was raised in Bloomington and learned the game from the player who was his first hockey hero.

“I was lucky to be coached by my dad up through bantams and just learned so much from him about work ethic and what it takes to make it,” Parise said of his father, who died of cancer in early 2015 while Zach was playing for the Minnesota Wild.

After prep school at Shattuck-St. Mary’s, Zach played two seasons of college hockey at North Dakota and was one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award in 2004 after his sophomore year. Earlier that season, Parise was a key player on Team USA’s first gold medal-winning World Juniors team.

With that tournament in the Twin Cities later this month, Parise reflected on how the event has evolved, and what that first world title meant to American hockey.

“It’s amazing how that’s grown just in publicity in the United States, which is great for us, because you’re looking at the future stars of the NHL, the next wave,” Parise said. “It’s a little bit of a feather in the cap for us that we were able to be the first United States team to win it. You look at where it’s come now, you feel like every year, they’re the favorite or they’re winning it.”

After beginning his NHL career in New Jersey and helping the Devils reach the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, Parise came home via a 13-year contract worth $98 million that he signed with the Wild a few weeks later. Although his homecoming did not result in a deep playoff run, and Parise’s contract was bought out by the team in 2021, Wild owner Craig Leipold said the organization has zero regrets about the signing.

Parise was the top forward on the last two Wild teams to win first-round playoff series in 2014 and 2015.

“His name is hockey in this state. There couldn’t be a better person or a more deserving person, and we will be there to celebrate with him,” Leipold said. “He changed our franchise. People still ask, ‘Would you do it again?’ The answer is absolutely. It changed our business.”

In retirement, Parise lives in Edina with his family and spends countless hours at the rink.

“I am head coach of my daughter’s U12 team, I’m an assistant coach with my son’s peewee team and I’m helping out with my littlest son’s mite team. I am a full-time hockey dad and coach,” he said. “I joke with my kids that, ‘I’m not good at a lot of things, but I’m good at this, so sometimes, can you listen?’ It’s rewarding to see the excitement on the kids’ faces, and them learning things. I love it. It’s so much fun.”

He added that the biggest challenge this week has been putting together his acceptance speech, looking back on his career and all of the teammates and others who meant so much to him along the way.

Founded in 1973, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame has inducted more than 175 individuals and four teams in the past 52 years.

Related Articles

Wild survive slugfest in Seattle

Good memories for Freddy Gaudreau as he faces Wild

Tom Hicks, the Texas businessman who owned Stars, Rangers and Liverpool teams, dies at 79

Jesper Wallstedt looks human as Wild drop consecutive games for first time since October

John Hynes likes Vladimir Tarasenko’s game, wants to see more shots