Climate Spat Creates Major US-German Rift

Political tensions between the US and Germany over climate change have worsened sharply, with Washington threatening to no longer “tread lightly” in negotiations on global warming ahead of the Group of Eight rich nations’ summit next month. In a statement, written in red ink and obtained by the Financial Times, the US says: “We have tried to ‘tread lightly’ but there is only so far we can go given our fundamental opposition to the German position.”