** The White House is standing by President Biden’s statement earlier this year that climate change poses the largest threat to humanity, even as thousands of people have been killed or wounded after a radical Iran-backed terrorist group unleashed violence across Israel over the weekend.
** Navigator CO2 Ventures announced Tuesday that it is putting on hold one of the two biggest proposed carbon dioxide pipeline projects in the Midwest so it can reassess the project. The company withdrew its application for a key permit in Illinois and said it it was putting all its permit applications on hold. The decision comes after South Dakota regulators last month denied a permit.
** The leading candidate to become Houston’s next mayor said the fourth-largest US city needs a multibillion-dollar bond issue to overhaul a brittle water system. , the longest-serving Texas state senator, said one of his main priorities as mayor would be repairing and upgrading a decrepit water-distribution network that springs as many as 1,000 leaks a day.
** Vice President will speak in the United Kingdom next month at a gathering focused on creating guardrails around artificial intelligence, according to a person familiar with the matter.
** US Treasury Secretary said the Biden administration hasn’t ruled out new sanctions against Iran in relation to renewed conflict in the Middle East, but no decisions have been made.
** General Motors and Canadian union Unifor reached a tentative deal on Tuesday only just hours after thousands of workers walked off the job at three GM facilities, threatening to disrupt the largest U.S. automaker’s profitable full-size truck production.
World
** Israel’s gas shipments to Egypt fell by 20% as safety concerns prompted the shutdown of a key offshore field, threatening onward deliveries to Europe. Halting the Tamar field in the Mediterranean Sea reduced Egypt’s imports of Israeli gas to about 650 million cubic feet per day, according to officials who asked not to be identified as they’re not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
** NATO Secretary General cautioned that any deliberate damage to the alliance’s critical infrastructure would warrant a response after an undersea gas pipeline was ruptured in a suspected act of sabotage in Finland.
** The European Union helped to build more than 30 miles of water pipelines for Palestinians despite Hamas terrorists boasting of their ability to forge an arsenal of home-made rockets from pipes.
** The Biden administration will allow Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. to acquire the equipment they need to sustain and expand their giant chipmaking operations in China, a victory for the world’s two biggest memory makers.
** Hungary amended a loophole in its environmental regulation to prevent battery makers from exploiting it, following protests even from within Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s own party.
** Qatar has agreed to supply France’s TotalEnergies with natural gas for 27 years, its state energy company announced on Wednesday. Qatar will supply 3.5 million tonnes of gas a year under the deal, QatarEnergy said, following two agreements with Total last year for a share of the Gulf state’s huge North Field gas expansion project.
** Environmental pressure group Extinction Rebellion said Tuesday it was ending its daily blockade of a major motorway in The Hague, after Dutch MPs voted to examine ways of scrapping fossil fuel subsidies.