TRUMP VS THE WORLD
Leaders pledge to save ‘Mother Earth’ despite Trump’s snub to climate pact, leaving him more alienated than ever US lashes out at climate critics
US President Donald Trump faced a global tongue-lashing as big business and leaders in China and Europe united to condemn him for his decision to pull the US out of the 2015 Paris climate accord.
In a sign of how Trump’s nationalist vision is shaking old geopolitical assumptions, the leaders of the EU and China, backed by India and Japan, pledged to unite to save what German Chancellor Angela Merkel called “our Mother Earth”, and announced they would fully implement the Paris deal despite Washington’s decision.
On Wall Street, corporate executives pilloried the businessman president. Goldman Sachs’s CEO tweeted for the first time, calling the move a setback for the world. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Bob Iger of Walt Disney quit a White House advisory council in protest.
The mayor of Pittsburgh — a city Trump highlighted as a beneficiary of his decision to turn his back on the global pact — vowed to abide by the Paris agreement.
Trump’s decision leaves him more alienated than ever, isolated on the world stage
Governors, mayors and powerful companies are already drawing up plans to meet the Paris targets
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe launched a nationwide 10-venue speaking tour this weekend aimed at drumming up support ahead of elections next year when he plans to seek office again.
The 93-year-old leader, who appeared to be in better health than at some recent public appearances, spoke for an hour and a half at a rally outside Harare attended by several thousand Zanu-PF supporters.
The ruling Zanu-PF party is widely seen as divided over Mugabe’s successor, while opposition parties are in talks to unite to try to oust him in the election.
“We want our party to remain united and not divided. If you are a real Zanu-PF member, be true to your party,” Mugabe said at the rally in Marondera.
He urged those seeking to succeed him to “be at peace”.
He said: “The time will come. It’s certainly coming.”
Zanu-PF officials say Mugabe is focusing on youth issues at the series of “interface rallies” in each of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces.
Mugabe has slurred his words in interviews this year and struggled to walk in public, but he stood up throughout his long speech on Friday.
He wore a jacket in the party colours, and arrived at the open-air venue standing on the back of a police truck and waving at cheering supporters.
“President Robert Mugabe is our sole candidate for 2018. We declare you our life president,” Kelvin Mutsvairo, a provincial youth party leader, said in his speech.
A banner at the rally called Mugabe “the father of youth empowerment” and urged young people to register to vote in the elections.
Mugabe has ruled since independence in 1980, and Zanu-PF are often accused of election-rigging and voter intimidation.
There have been some recent concerns about the president’s health. He has been seen sleeping at several recent meetings, but his spokesman said he was resting his eyes. —