Tariffs will affect nearly $13 billion of U.S. goods: Canada isn’t taking President Donald Trump’s decision to hit the country with steel and aluminum tariffs lying down. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs on $12.8 billion worth of U.S. goods in response to Trump’s metals tariffs. The list of goods set to get hit by the Canadian tariffs varies from industrial steel to sleeping bags. READ MORE
Mexico will impose tariffs on dairy: Following the White House announcement that President Trump plans to impose steel tariffs on the EU, Canada and Mexico, our North American neighbors took action of their own countering with tariffs on cheese and yogurt. The Mexican government was the first to announce retaliatory tariffs on dairy products. READ MORE
And whiskey! The consequences of the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs are already being felt across global markets. But the makers of one iconic American product say they stand to suffer more than most: bourbon whiskey distillers. Distillers and whiskey sellers told TIME the threat of retaliation had already had an impact. READ MORE
CYBER SECURITY
Coca-Cola data breach: The Coca-Cola Co. recently announced a data breach possibly affecting some 8,000 workers. A former employee was found with an external hard drive containing employee personal data. Bleeping Computer is reporting that Coca-Cola was told by law enforcement officials in September 2017 that a former staffer of a company subsidiary had been found with the drive. The company said it had no information to suggest the information was used to commit identity theft. READ MORE
PUBLIC HEALTH
Predicting future zoonotic disease outbreaks: Down a dirt path outside of the village of Meliandou in Guinea once stood a tall, hollow tree where children used to play. Not anymore. This tree, now notorious as the potential starting point of the deadly Ebola outbreak that ripped through West Africa a few years ago, was burned after the disease sickened and killed hundreds of people over a four-month period. More than 10,000 ultimately succumbed to the disease between 2014 and 2016. READ MORE
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
Guatemala volcano’s death toll rises: The known death toll for the eruption of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire has taken a sudden jump upward. The director of Guatemala’s National Institute of Forensic Science says that 62 bodies have been recovered following the eruption. The volcano west of Guatemala City staged and explosive eruption Sunday, burying surrounding hamlets in hot ash and mud that gave residents on the volcano’s flanks little time to escape. READ MORE
Hawaii eruption cuts off access: National Guard troops, police and firefighters ushered the last group of evacuees from homes on the eastern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island early on Saturday, hours before lava from the Kilauea volcano cut off road access to the area, officials said. A stream of lava as wide as three football fields flowed over a highway near a junction at Kapoho, a seaside community of rebuilt after a destructive eruption of Kilauea in 1960. READ MORE
Earthquake rattles Hawaii’s Big Island: A 5.5-magnitude quake rattled the Big Island Sunday afternoon, US Geological Survey officials said. No tsunami is expected from the quake, which is among the strongest of recent quakes felt around the Big Island. The quake rumbled an area near Kilauea Volcano just before 4 p.m., sending an ash cloud 8,000 feet into the air. READ MORE
THE FUTURE
Robo-tractors: The bright red, driverless tractor drags the tiller in a perfect line in a south Indian field, makes a turn at the edge of the property, encounters a test dummy and then stalls, not knowing what to do. India’s Mahindra & Mahindra, one of the biggest suppliers of smaller tractors to the U.S., and other manufacturers are racing to develop what they see as the future of farming: robo-tractors and other farming equipment to help produce more food, more sustainably at a lower cost. READ MORE