Last week, as the war in Iran continued to choke global oil supplies, the UK government announced a 13% increase in the cap on energy prices. But it was another related story on the other side of the world that caught my eye.
In Australia, the energy minister announced a fall of up to 10% in the benchmark electricity price in parts of the country, driven by record levels of renewables and batteries in the power grid.
Australia was already a world leader in domestic solar power. But with little fanfare, it is also pioneering a revolution in home renewables and battery usage, proving that with the right policy initiatives, profound changes can be made to the ways energy markets work.
Five essential reads in this week’s edition
The big story | Is the Iran war Trump’s Vietnam moment?
The current Middle East conflict has been far shorter than the war that defined the 1960s and early 1970s, but it has rapidly revealed the strategic weakness of US firepower in an interconnected world, argues Patrick Wintour
Health | Cancer breakthroughs from the world’s largest oncology conference
From groundbreaking genomic tests to tumour-shrinking injections, health editor Andrew Gregory reports from the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago
Feature | The people fighting back against pothole-riddled roads
The dire state of roads has provoked pothole vigilantes and become a political flashpoint from Manchester to Manhattan. How did we get here? Oliver Franklin-Wallis reports
Opinion | If you’re still on Elon Musk’s X, ask yourself this: why?
Some argue that quitting the platform formerly known as Twitter cedes the space to malign actors. But it’s an open sewer, beyond redemption, says Jonathan Liew
Culture | Children’s illustrators on the art of storytelling
From The Twits to The Gruffalo and an angry bear in search of his hat … famous illustrators talk to Stuart Heritage about how they bring children’s books to life
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