Today: Ford Motor brought together Silicon Valley techies and industry misfits in a quest to beat China at EVs; South America trade deal puts EU deforestation regulation under strain; Zambia assisted a pollution cover up, a U.S. House committee found.

Welcome back: Ford Motor developed a secret project with an ambitious goal: to figure out how to make electric vehicles in the U.S. that could compete with the Chinese models clobbering competitors globally.

The Wall Street Journal's Sharon Terlep reports that the secret is now out as Ford races toward building its first model, a new truck it says will be nearly as fast as a Mustang, travel around 300 miles on a single charge and feature in-car technology to compete with Tesla and China. 

Getting there means tearing up a century of manufacturing practices in a notoriously hidebound industry. At stake for Ford is securing a future beyond the gas-guzzling pickups that have long defined its bottom line.

To build these new EVs, the company must use fewer people and simpler parts, and dismantle decades of engineering inertia. Chief Executive Jim Farley is calling it Ford’s new “Model T moment.” Rival automakers say overcoming China on EVs can’t be done, given their advantages: extensive government backing, low-cost labor and a massive head start.

• The auto industry faces an aluminum shortage and sharply higher costs due to the Iran war, a 50% U.S. tariff, and a supplier outage. (WSJ)

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The European Union is set to roll out long-awaited regulation this year to reduce deforestation across the globe. But, a new trade deal with South American countries could test how well that works in practice.

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Yusuf Khan reports that on Monday, the EU published its simplified version of the European Union Deforestation Regulation, which is set to come into force in December.

The EUDR aims to halt deforestation by stopping the import of palm oil, cocoa, coffee, soy, cattle and timber from land that has been deforested. Together, these commodities account for more than two thirds of global deforestation, according to the EU. Leather, which was originally included in the proposal, was removed from the list this week.

But last week, the bloc also entered into a trade agreement with South American countries. The deal with the Mercosur trade bloc could significantly increase exports in some of those same commodities, especially soy and beef, into European markets.

Saddled by billions in crushing debt owed to Beijing, the Zambian government helped a Chinese-owned mining giant cover up one of the worst mining pollution incidents in the country’s history, according to an investigation by a U.S. House Select Committee on China.

The Journal's Nicholas Bariyo reports that more than a year after a tailings dam owned by Sino-Metals collapsed and unleashed toxic sludge into the Kafue River, farmlands along the river valley are scorched, hundreds of people lack a source of clean drinking water and residents continue to live on land contaminated with heavy metals.

The Zambian government, which owes $6.6 billion to the Chinese government and Chinese lenders, has held back from pressing Sino-Metals over the disaster, fearing retaliation from China, the committee said in a report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Sino-Metals is a subsidiary of state-owned China Nonferrous Mining.

• Danish renewable company Orsted maintained its full-year guidance as a jump in offshore generation helped drive a rise in earnings. (WSJ)
   
• Ocean Wind, the offshore wind firm that took a Trump payout, is making big strides in Europe—especially with floating wind. (Canary Media)
   
• Investors are piling into clean power funds at the fastest pace in five years as the Iran war accelerates a global push for energy security. (FT)
   
• The administration is reviewing a SEC proposal to formally end Biden-era climate disclosure rules for publicly-traded companies. (Bloomberg)
   
• The White House is mulling an executive order to accelerate technology that can boost the capacity of transmission lines. (Latitude Media)
   
• Sustainability leaders are simultaneously exhausted by artificial intelligence and intensely curious about it. (Trellis)
   
• Researchers built a device that captures greenhouse gases and pollutants from the atmosphere and produces electricity. (Anthropocene)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send your comments to editor Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com. Follow the WSJ Pro Sustainable Business team on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.