Schwarzenegger tells environmentalists dismayed by Trump to ‘stop whining' and get to work
VIENNA — Arnold Schwarzenegger has a message for environmentalists who despair at the the approach of President Donald Trump's administration: 'Stop whining and get to work.'
The new U.S. administration has taken an ax to Biden-era environmental ambitions, rolled back landmark regulations, withdrawn climate project funding and instead bolstered support for oil and gas production in the name of an 'American energy dominance' agenda.
Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California, has devoted time to environmental causes since leaving political office in 2011.
He said Tuesday he keeps hearing from environmentalists and policy experts lately who ask, 'What is the point of fighting for a clean environment when the government of the United States says climate change is a hoax and coal and oil is the future?'
Schwarzenegger told the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, an event he helps organize, that he responds: 'Stop whining and get to work.'
He pointed to examples of local and regional governments and companies taking action, including his own administration in California, and argued 70 per cent of pollution is reduced at the local or state level.
'Be the mayor that makes buses electric; be the CEO who ends fossil fuel dependence; be the school that puts (up) solar roofs,' he said.
'You can't just sit around and make excuses because one guy in a very nice White House on Pennsylvania Avenue doesn't agree with you,' he said, adding that attacking the president is 'not my style' and he doesn't criticize any president when outside the U.S.
'I know that the people are sick and tired of the whining and the complaining and the doom and gloom,' Schwarzenegger said. 'The only way we win the people's hearts and minds is by showing them action that makes their lives better.'
The Associated Press
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CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
New German leader plans to discuss Ukraine and trade with Trump in Oval Office visit
WASHINGTON — Germany's new leader is meeting U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday as he works to keep the U.S. on board with Western support for Ukraine, help defuse trade tensions that pose a risk to Europe's biggest economy and further bolster his country's long-criticized military spending. Trump and Chancellor Friedrich Merz have spoken several times by phone, either bilaterally or with other European leaders, since Merz took office on May 6. German officials say the two leaders have started to build a 'decent' relationship, with Merz wanting to avoid the antagonism that defined Trump's relationship with one of his predecessors, Angela Merkel, in the Republican president's first term. The 69-year-old Merz is a conservative former rival of Merkel's who took over her party after she retired from politics. Merz also comes to office with an extensive business background — something that could align him with Trump. On Thursday, Merz told reporters in Washington ahead of his meeting with Trump that 'the meeting has been well prepared on all sides.' He said he wants to discuss the Ukraine war, tariffs and NATO spending. 'We will have to talk about NATO — we changed the constitution in Germany so that we can spend the means that need to be spent,' Merz said, adding that 'we want to become the strongest conventional army in the European Union.' Before it took office, Merz's coalition pushed plans through parliament to enable higher defense spending by loosening strict rules on incurring debt. Still, Merz said he didn't anticipate major breakthroughs on any of the key issues that he planned to discuss with Trump. A White House official said topics that Trump is likely to raise with Merz include Germany's defense spending, trade, Ukraine and what the official called 'democratic backsliding,' saying the administration's view is that shared values such as freedom of speech have deteriorated in Germany and the country should reverse course. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the discussions. But Merz told reporters Thursday morning that if Trump wanted to talk German domestic politics, he was ready to do that but he also stressed Germany holds back when it comes to American domestic politics. Merz will want to avoid an Oval Office showdown of the kind that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa experienced in recent months. Asked about the risk of a White House blow-up, Merz spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said on Monday that the chancellor is 'well-prepared' for the meeting and that he and Trump have 'built up a decent relationship, at least by phone' and via text messaging. Keeping Ukraine's Western backers together Merz has thrown himself into diplomacy on Ukraine, traveling to Kyiv with fellow European leaders days after taking office and receiving Zelenskyy in Berlin last week. He has thanked Trump for his support for an unconditional ceasefire while rejecting the idea of 'dictated peace' or the 'subjugation' of Ukraine and advocating for more sanctions against Russia. The White House official said Trump on Thursday will stress that direct peace talks must continue. In their first phone call since Merz became chancellor, Trump said he would support the efforts of Germany and other European countries to achieve peace, according to a readout from the German government. Merz also said last month that 'it is of paramount importance that the political West not let itself be divided, so I will continue to make every effort to produce the greatest possible unity between the European and American partners.' Under Merz's immediate predecessor, Olaf Scholz, Germany became the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States. Merz has vowed to keep up the support and last week pledged to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any range limits. Military spending At home, Merz's government is intensifying a drive that Scholz started to bolster the German military after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In Trump's first term, Berlin was a target of his ire for failing to meet the current NATO target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense, and Trump is now demanding at least 5% from allies. The White House official said the upcoming NATO summit in the Netherlands later this month is a 'good opportunity' for Germany to commit to meeting that 5% mark. Scholz set up a 100 billion euro (US$115 billion) special fund to modernize Germany's armed forces — called the Bundeswehr — which had suffered from years of neglect. Germany has met the 2% target thanks to the fund, but it will be used up in 2027. Merz has said that 'the government will in the future provide all the financing the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe.' He has endorsed a plan for all allies to aim to spend 3.5% of GDP on their defense budgets by 2032, plus an extra 1.5% on potentially defense-related things like infrastructure. Germany's economy and tariffs Another top priority for Merz is to get Germany's economy, Europe's biggest, moving again after it shrank the past two years. 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Americans bought $36 billion worth of cars, trucks and auto parts from Germany last year, while the Germans purchased $10.2 billion worth of vehicles and parts from the U.S. Trump's 25% tariff on autos and parts is specifically designed to increase the cost of German-made automobiles in hopes of causing them to move their factories to the U.S., even though many of the companies already have plants in the U.S. with Volkswagen in Tennessee, BMW in South Carolina and Mercedes-Benz in Alabama and South Carolina. There's only so much Merz can achieve on his view that tariffs 'benefit no one and damage everyone' while in Washington, as trade negotiations are a matter for the European Union's executive commission. Trump recently delayed a planned 50% tariff on goods coming from the European Union, which would have otherwise gone into effect this month. Far-right tensions One source of strain in recent months is a speech Vice President JD Vance gave in Munich shortly before Germany's election in February, in which he lectured European leaders about the state of democracy on the continent and said there is no place for 'firewalls.' That term is frequently used to describe mainstream German parties' refusal to work with the far-right Alternative for Germany, which finished second in the election and is now the biggest opposition party. Merz criticized the comments. He told ARD television last month that it isn't the place of a U.S. vice president 'to say something like that to us in Germany; I wouldn't do it in America, either.' ___ Seung Min Kim, Kirsten Grieshaber And Geir Moulson, The Associated Press Moulson reported from Berlin. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
Globe and Mail
6 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
ECB cuts benchmark interest rate by quarter point as Trump tariffs threaten economy
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CTV News
10 hours ago
- CTV News
Bill to help fast-track Dresden landfill passes
Provincial legislation to help fast-track a highly contentious landfill in Dresden, Ont. was passed on Wednesday. Provincial legislation to help fast-track a highly contentious landfill in Dresden, Ont. was passed on Wednesday. As part of Bill 5, 'Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act,' Ontario can exempt certain projects from the need for a full environmental assessment. 'Dresden is that special place where all the evils in Bill five will sort of happen first,' said Stefan Premdas, the board chair of Dresden C.A.R.E.D, an advocacy group formed in opposition to the landfill. Despite exhaustive efforts by Liberal and NDP MPPs to stall the vote, the Ford government pushed through the legislation. The bill will exempt the York1 Environmental Waste Solutions project on Irish School Road from a comprehensive environmental assessment. In recent months, Dresden residents, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and Walpole Island First Nation have vehemently opposed the proposal. The long-defunct dump was previously used as a tile yard and ash landfill. By reopening it, residents fear there will be adverse changes to the environment, impacting their health, wildlife, and nearby ecosystems. York1 has insisted the site will recycle construction materials and non-hazardous soils, but municipal officials have disputed the claim. 'We are feeling emotional as to Bill Five passing, but make no mistake, us being emotional and sad does not mean we've stopped fighting,' Premdas told CTV News. The bill has been heavily scrutinized by First Nations Communities, who say their rights have been trampled. Leela Thomas, chief of Walpole Island First Nation, told CTV News the government delivered a 'slap in the face' to treaty rights. When asked about Dresden, Thomas noted they don't believe the fight is over. 'We're going to fight this to the Supreme Court if we need to,' Thomas said. Dresden area MPP Steve Pinsonneault was absent Wednesday from his seat at Queen's Park when Bill 5 was approved. Pinsonneault had previously broken with party rank by publicly voicing his opposition to the legislation. In a previous post on social media, Pinsonneault said even if he voted against the bill, it wouldn't change the outcome. CTV News reached out to MPPs across Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent but only received one response. Andrew Dowie, MPP for Windsor-Tecumseh, downplayed the concerns over the landfill proposal. 'This is not a new landfill in Dresden. It is already approved for waste, and the same very strict environmental scrutiny through the ECA, the Environmental Compliance Approval process, will remain,' Dowie said. 'This is not zero regulation. This is pretty tough regulation.' On several occasions, the Ford government has defended the legislation because of dwindling landfill space. 'The United States, particularly Michigan, has said they're tired of taking in our waste generated in Ontario, and we do not have an overabundance of landfill capacity,' Dowie added. — With files from CTV Windsor's Michelle Maluske and Travis Fortnum.
