** Ford said it will begin shipping to North American dealers 144,000 of its redesigned F-150 and Ranger pickup trucks that it built but held back until now in an effort to head off quality problems.
** American greenhouse gas emissions rose 1 percent between 2021 and 2022 but fell nearly 17 percent from 2005 levels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) annual emissions inventory report. Net U.S. emissions increased by 1.3 percent in 2022 for a total of 5,489 million metric tons of carbon dioxide compared to the previous year, according to the EPA.
** Kansas City has a history of devastating floods. That’s why, over the past 15 years, crews have been working on a $550 million project aimed at averting the next big flood, which only increases in risk as the metro area keeps growing.
** Large U.S. airlines and some of their unions are asking the Biden administration to stop approving any more flights between the United States and China because of what they call “anti-competitive” policies that China imposes on U.S. carriers.
** Baltimore’s Key Bridge, a vital transit and shipping route, collapsed last month after being hit by a cargo ship. The incident has left members of the community fearing for their future. Following the deadly bridge collapse, the Port of Baltimore suspended operations, resulting in 8,000 job losses.
** Biden administration officials successfully pressured fact-checking website Snopes to alter its rating on a fact check it conducted regarding a potential federal ban on gas stoves, according to internal communications.
** President Joe Biden has been urged to ban imports of Chinese-made electric cars to the US. The chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown, wrote “Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry”.
World
** US officials met secretly this week with members of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s administration to keep him engaged in negotiations over democratic reforms as a deadline nears to reinstate sanctions against the nation’s oil industry.
** The EU plans to dig into government subsidies given to Chinese turbine suppliers currently used in wind farms across Spain, France, Bulgaria, and more, EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a Tuesday speech made in Princeton, N.J.
** Europe’s top human rights court in Strasbourg ruled (April 9) that the Swiss government had violated the human rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate change. The Swiss women, known as KlimaSeniorinnen in German, said their government’s climate inaction put them at risk of dying during heatwaves.
** Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is embarking on a charm offensive with Beijing as she looks to shield trade and economic ties after pulling Italy out of China’s controversial global investment initiative last year.
** Britain is poised to import a record amount of energy from France and other European countries this summer after mothballing a host of power stations. The French state-owned operator EDF will sell much of the surplus power from its nuclear plants to the UK in the coming months after taking advantage of new undersea cables and a lack of domestic capacity, according to a new report from National Gas.