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Culture > News

HC Wake-Up Call: Trump to Meet With Putin, 575 Protesters Arrested at Women’s March & Starbucks Will Cover Surgeries For Transgender Employees

Emily Veith

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.)

President Trump to Meet With Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland

President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland on July 16.

Russia and the United States revealed the meeting in separate statements on Thursday, ABC News reports.

The White House, in its statement, said that “the two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues.” The Kremlin said “the present state and perspective for further development of Russian-American relations, and also current issues from the international agenda” will be discussed at the meeting.

“I think we’ll be talking about Syria. I think we’ll be talking about Ukraine. I think we’ll be talking about many other subjects,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“Maybe something positive will come out of it,” Trump said. “I’ve said from day one, getting along with Russia and with China and with everybody is a very good thing. It’s good for the world. It’s good for us. It’s good for everybody.”

Trump tweeted just before the announcement of the meeting, again casting doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of the Russian meddling and redirected to the FBI’s investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

“Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election! Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn’t Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!” Trump wrote.

Plans for the meeting began to surface after Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton met with Putin on Wednesday in Moscow, ABC News reports.

Bolton acknowledged that any meeting between Trump and Putin is likely to generate “political noise” in the U.S., where special counsel Robert Mueller still continues his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

“A lot of people have said or implied over time that a meeting between President Trump and President Putin would somehow prove some nexus between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, which is complete nonsense,” Bolton said. “The president recognizes there may be some criticism of this decision to have the meeting. You’ve heard some of it here today. But what must guide his conduct of American foreign policy is the pursuit of American national interests. And he judges — correctly in my view — that this bilateral summit between himself and President Putin is something he needs to do and will do, regardless of political criticism at home.”

The Trump-Putin meeting comes just weeks after the historic summit between Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

575 Protesters Arrested at Women’s March at Capitol Hill

Hundreds of protesters, mostly women, gathered at Capitol Hill on Thursday to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

The protesters, chanting “We care!” and “Abolish ICE!”, were demanding that Congress stop Trump’s zero tolerance policy of detaining illegal immigrants and separating immigrant families, ABC News reports.

Protesters walked around wearing mylar blankets similar to the ones being given to the immigrant children being held at detention facilities.

“Women are outraged at the separation of families,” said Linda Sarsour, an organizer of last year’s Women’s March. “We are outraged of all the things that are unfolding in our country.”

“We are here to say we’re ready to sacrifice and we’re ready to leave our jobs, leave our families to come and take this act of civil disobedience here,” she added.

Capitol Hill police arrested 575 people protesting in the Senate building and charged them with unlawful demonstrating, ABC News reports. Rep. Pramila Jayapal tweeted that she was also arrested.

The march began near the Justice Department, where speakers shared their experiences with immigration and rallied the supporters by calling for the end of the policy.

Protesters showed their support with signs that had messages like, “Don’t have a heart of I.C.E.” Others painted “We Care” on their palms, and several protesters wore jackets with “I really care. Do you?” written on their backs in response to First Lady Melania Trump wearing a Zara jacket that had the message “I really don’t care. Do U?” written on the back when boarding the plane and returning from visiting children in detention facilities.

Starbucks Announces It Will Cover Surgeries For Transgender Employees

In a recent press release, Starbucks announced that it will cover medical procedure costs for transgender employees.

The coffee company worked with World Professional Association for Transgender Health to create a new health insurance plan, the first corporation in the world to do so.

According to Hello Giggles, Starbucks has offered insurance plans that covers gender reassignment surgeries since 2012, but these new plans will cover procedures that were before deemed “cosmetic,” and thus rarely covered, such as breast augmentation or reduction, hair transplants and facial feminization.

Ron Crawford, vice president of benefits at Starbucks, said in the press release that this decision was driven “by the company’s desire to provide truly inclusive coverage, and by powerful conversations with transgender [employees] about how those benefits would allow them to truly be who they are.”

Starbucks has also brought in trained advocates to help transgender employees through the process and assist them in finding proper health care providers.

Crawford said he hopes that Starbucks can serve as an example to other companies to do what’s right by their transgender employees.

What to look out for…

Disney released its dates for their Halloween cruise, and I am already getting my costume ready. 

Emily has also authored political articles for Restless Magazine and numerous inspirational and empowering pieces for Project Wednesday. When she isn't writing, she can be found flying off to her next adventure, attempting new recipes, listening to one of her infinite playlists on Spotify, or cuddling with her dogs. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @emilycveith.