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
The talks which led to the deal did not include the Iranian-backed armed group, which said it fired rockets at Israeli targets hours after the truce was announced.
We founded Skeptic magazine and the Skeptics Society in 1992, partially in response to a market demand from consumers and the media for a scientific and rational response to increasingly tantalizing claims of the paranormal and supernatural, ESP and Psi, telepathy and telekinesis, NDEs and OBEs, ghosts and poltergeists, astrology and psychics, cryptozoology and strange creatures, haunted houses and mysterious places, UFOs and aliens, conspiracy theories and cults, and a litany of anomalous psychological experiences people reported.
I’m a humanistic weirdo, and as such I’m not sure where I belong in this modern culture war. I love truth and reason — I’ve built a career on them — but I belong to a humanistic tradition that refuses to stop at the head and leave the heart out of it. And these days there aren’t many of us. So when I look at the people we’ve come to call “anti-woke intellectuals”—many of whom have written for Skeptic or appeared as guests on The Michael Shermer Show podcast—I don’t see them the way either side wants me to.
In the governor’s race, a Trump-endorsed Republican held a narrow lead. In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass advanced, but her opponent was yet to be decided.
President Trump’s pick for governor of Iowa lost his primary, while Democrats in the state chose a nominee for what they hope will be a competitive Senate race.
The U.S. and Iran accused each other of launching new strikes. President Trump told The New York Post that Iran’s supreme leader was involved in peace talks.
As an annual economic conference was set to begin, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had targeted a navy base and an oil terminal in the region that includes Russia’s second-largest city.
Under pressure from President Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel held off from attacking Beirut. But he vowed to continue Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, which could threaten peace talks with Iran.
The war has not been going the Kremlin’s way recently, with battleground losses and mounting casualties. With renewed strikes, Moscow hopes to gain a better position for negotiations.
Moscow’s repeated warnings of a major strike, combined with the delay before it happened, seemed intended to inflict a psychological toll on the Ukrainian capital.
Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline
Doctors in the U.S. are encountering more children with bacterial infections and other serious illnesses, as well as more adults refusing tetanus shots.
Why read historical fiction? A new novel by the author of “Hamnet” offers one answer: because it’s fun. By Katy Waldman
Why the American Novel Refused to Grow Up
For the critic Leslie Fiedler, the country’s best and worst fiction was shaped by visions of escape from society—and therefore from maturity. By Becca Rothfeld
The World Cup According to Gianni Infantino
FIFA’s powerful president is remaking global soccer in his own image. Can the sport survive him? By Sam Knight
The U.S. military intercepted two Iranian missiles early Monday and no American personnel were harmed, Central Command said. The attacks threatened to further complicate talks to end the war.
Lebanon’s government has long wanted the powerful militia to give up its weapons. Before the Iran war began, there were signs of progress toward that goal.
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE:The 5.31.26 Issue features Taffy Brodesser-Akner on the A.I. actress Tilly Norwood; Daniel Waite Perry on sperm racing; Jeffrey Toobin on how to get a pardon in Trump’s Washington; and more.
One reason I love my partner is his sharp mind and critical thinking. Using A.I. for every decision is something I don’t understand. By Kwame Anthony Appiah
Talks among lawyers with allegiance to President Trump were so closely held that some senior White House officials told others that they were blindsided.
The departure of more than 10,000 lawyers has left some agencies without sufficient staff and has boosted the ranks of state attorneys general offices.
Trump Sends Tougher Terms to Iran for Peace Framework, Officials Say
His changes to the proposed deal were potentially designed to speed up the process by pressuring Iran to accept the current framework, one official said.
Olha Reshetylova has been tasked by the government with overseeing soldiers’ rights. Some commanders resent her, but she says her work makes the armed forces stronger.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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