Crypto News: A carbon quandary, China's new money men, and more from Big Take

Maria Cardoso holds containers with water collected on her property near the Norsk Hydro Hydro Alunorte refinery during flooding. The refinery is accused sickening thousands of people in the area. Photographer: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg

Vehicles are the largest source of carbon emissions in the US, and the switch to electric is essential to the government's goal of reducing the pollutants. That means persuading middle America — not just Tesla-driving environmentally conscious buyers — to go electric, too.

Enter Ford's F-150 Lightning, the EV version of America's best-selling pickup. It's as fast as a sports car and billed as a green "truck of the future."

The Ford F-150 EV needs a lot of lightweight aluminum, and much of that aluminum comes from the Amazon region of Brazil. There, in the heart of the rainforest, bauxite is being clawed from a mine that has long faced allegations of pollution and land appropriation. And, near where the Amazon River empties into the Atlantic, a refinery that processes the ore stands accused of sickening thousands of people and poisoning the land.

The 2022 National Peoples Congress (NPC) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photographer: Leo Ramirez/AFP

Sunday, at the National People's Congress, China's leaders will set a new budget, unveil economic goals (look for a 5% or higher growth-rate target) and bid farewell to a long line of pro-market reformers in control of the economy. The new guard expected to take over are known for being more closely aligned with President Xi Jinping than their academic credentials or overseas exposure. Investors are wondering: Is more heavy-handed intervention and economic nationalism in store?

Twelve years after one of the worst nuclear disasters in history shook Japan and turned the public against atomic power, a global energy crisis is encouraging the country to switch its reactors back on. Even close to the Fukushima site, attitudes are shifting — though there are still plenty of skeptics — and turning reactors back on won't happen overnight.

Measuring the concentration of harmful gases in an underground potash mine at the Usolskiy Potash Complex in the Perm region of Russia in 2017. Source: Bloomberg

On The Big Take Podcast, we take a deep dive on how the global food supply is tied up in geopolitical tensions. It comes down to fertilizer, and who's producing it (hint: China and Russia).

Subscribe and listen on iHeart, Apple and Spotify.

"They can't kill me in the Four Seasons."

Pras Michél

Founding member of hip-hop group the Fugees

How did a 90s rapper got entangled in one of the century's great financial scandals and mediate a high-stakes negotiation between global superpowers? The story is as strange as you'd imagine it.

Gabon has suffered less than 1% forest loss since 1990, compared with about 14% for continental Africa. Now it's ready to make money on its forests — either dead or alive.