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Germany responds to Donald Trump’s debate comments
Germany is denying an assertion made by former President Donald Trump during the presidential debate Tuesday about the country’s renewable energy industry.
“You believe in things like we’re not going to frack, we’re not going to take fossil fuel, we’re not going to do things that are going to be strong, whether you like it or not,” Trump said in his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. “Germany tried that, and within one year, they were back to building normal energy plants.”
But on Tuesday, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office decided to issue a rebuttal, echoing the former president’s language.
“Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables,” the Federal Foreign Office shared on X. “And we are shutting down – not building – coal & nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest.”
The German Foreign Office also poked at Trump for another comment he made during the debate.
“PS: We also don’t eat cats and dogs,” it concluded, referring to Trump’s debunked claim that Haitian migrants had eaten pets in Springfield, Ohio. The town’s authorities have said that there have not been credible reports about migrants targeting pets.
“Contradiction with facts and humor — that is the right answer to disinformation,” German State Minister Anna Lührmann added on Thursday about her government’s response. “As democrats, we can no longer allow ourselves to leave false statements uncommented.”
Climate change and energy policies are raised frequently during both candidates’ election campaigns. Trump also claimed that if Harris wins the election, fracking in Pennsylvania “will end on day one.”
“Fossil fuel will be dead,” Trump said. “We’ll go back to windmills, and we’ll go back to solar.”
Before she became vice president, Harris, who was a senator representing California, pushed for climate-friendly policies. “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said in 2019. But as vice president, she has changed course.
“I have not banned fracking as vice president,” Harris told Trump. “My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy costs in Germany have spiked as Berlin seeks alternatives to Russian energy. The United States exported over 200 million cubic feet of liquid natural gas to Germany last year. Russian natural gas volumes in the German energy market saw a 30% decline in 2022.
“Yes, Germany is serious about the energy transition,” the German embassy in Washington said in a post on X. “Our energy system is fully operational, with > 50% renewables. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest – while we’re investing billions to create new opportunities in former coal regions.”
Germany shut down its last three nuclear power plants last year, as it plans to transition the majority of its energy consumption to renewable energy by 2050. But the country still needs “additional measures” to reach its climate targets, according to the German Environment Agency.
As president, Trump criticized Berlin’s energy policy for relying heavily on Russia. In 2019, he signed the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act into law, which would sanction vessels participating in the construction of the Nord Stream 2, an undersea pipeline built by Russia’s state-run energy giant Gazprom.
In May 2021, the State Department waived previously imposed sanctions, but the waiver was terminated a day before Russia invaded Ukraine. In September 2022, a series of explosions, first detected by Scandinavian authorities off the Danish island of Bornholm, ruptured the pipeline. Last month, German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national, whom they said had resided in Poland, but he had left the country.
The U.S. denied any involvement in the attack and condemned the sabotage against the pipeline.
During the debate, Trump still attacked the Biden administration over the pipeline. “Why does Biden go in and kill the Keystone pipeline and approve the single biggest deal that Russia has ever made, Nord Stream 2? Because they’re weak, and they’re ineffective,” Trump said, asking Harris about her administration’s foreign policy.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.