Good morning, Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
Canada Hits $13 Billion Worth of U.S. Goods With New Tariffs
Canada has retaliated against the United States’ steel and aluminum tariffs by imposing tariffs of its own on U.S. goods.
The Canadian government confirmed on Sunday that they were imposing tariffs on U.S. goods worth nearly $13 million.
According to CNN Money, our northern neighbors imposed a 25 percent tariff on 40 U.S. steel products, and a 10 percent tariff on a range of other U.S. goods, including maple syrup, coffee beans and toffee.
Canada’s tariffs are designed to be proportional to the U.S. steel tariffs imposed on June 1.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the U.S. needed to be held accountable for its actions.
“I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing but it is something that we absolutely will do,” Trudeau said in June. “[As] Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable but we also will not be pushed around.”
The U.S. has already imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on Mexico, China, Turkey, India and the European Union, provoking them to either retaliate with tariffs of their own or file legal challenges with the World Trade Organization, CNN Money reports.
Canada and Mexico, however, have the additional challenge of responding to these tariffs while renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, with the U.S.
Comedian “Stuttering John” Prank Called Trump
President Donald Trump reportedly carried on a lengthy conversation via telephone on Air Force One with a comedian who pretended to be Sen. Bob Menendez.
According to The Huffington Post, Comedian John Melendez, known as “Stuttering John,” posed as the senator, who is a frequent Trump critic, in a podcast he posted online. Melendez said he got the president to talk about his Supreme Court pick and his zero tolerance immigration policy.
“Believe me, if it was that easy to dupe him, there’s every chance in the world [Russian President Vladimir] Putin duped him,” Melendez told HuffPost.
Melendez said he found a phone number online for the White House and called it. Melendez introduces himself as Menendez’s assistant “Sean Moore,” and asks to speak with the president. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, reportedly called Melendez back 45 minutes later, and he was talking to the president 20 minutes after that, HuffPost reports.
On the podcast, a voice that sounds like Trump’s can be heard congratulating Menendez for his recent primary win on Tuesday. “Hi Bob. Congratulations on everything. We’re proud of you! Great job,” the voice says. “You went through a tough, tough situation, and I don’t think a very fair situation. Congratulations,” the speaker adds, referencing to the dismissed federal corruption charges earlier this year.
Melendez and Trump also discussed the president’s immigration policies after Melendez said his “constituents” were giving him grief on the matter.
Melendez also suggested to the president that he should select a moderate to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. “I have a big list of people, Bob,” the voice says, “and we’ll be looking at it the next couple of weeks. We have some great choices.”
While the White House did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment, a White House source did say the administration “[had] been scrambling” to figure out how something like this could have happened. It does pose a big security issue.
The White House, according to HuffPost, reached out to Menendez’s office to ask about the call.
The senator did release a statement saying he would like a real conversation with Trump.
“As someone who has spent my entire career trying to convince Republicans to join me in reforming our nation’s broken immigration system, I welcome any opportunity to have a real conversation with the president on how to uphold the American values that guided our family-based immigration policy for the past century,” Menendez said. “Tearing children apart from their mothers is not part of our proud history. Thus far, this White House has only sabotaged every good-faith effort to find bipartisan common ground on immigration.”
San Francisco is 1st Major City With $15 Minimum Wage
San Francisco will become the first major U.S. city to have a $15 minimum wage on Sunday under a ballot measure approved by voters in 2014, ABC News reports.
City Administrator Naomi Kelly said the city will be the first to hit this major milestone for workers, but it won’t be the only one. Two years ago California lawmakers approved an increase in the state’s minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour by 2022.
In Emeryville, California, a smaller San Francisco Bay area city, will also increase its minimum wage to $15 on Sunday for smaller employers. Larger employers have had to pay their employees $15 an hour since last July, ABC News reports.
Either way, this is a major achievement for those that have been pushing for a $15 minimum wage for workers to ensure they have a living wage.
What to look out for…
A new Hello Kitty bullet train is coming to Japan, and I am booking my tickets now.