The cost of cushioning Europe’s energy crisis: The governments of the UK and European countries will spend a combined USD 500 bn to subsidize their citizens’ spiraling energy bills as Europe prepares for a winter energy crisis spurred by the loss of Russian fossil fuels to the market. New UK Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday said her government would cap energy bills for all households, in a move that could cost the British treasury as much as GBP 150 bn (USD 172 bn), analysts told CNN. The move follows similar policy announcements by the likes of Germany, Austria, and other EU member states.

EU ministers announced no concrete steps in a Friday meeting to address rising energy prices, Bloomberg reports. The ministers called on the EU executive to bring in “urgent measures” to bring down sky high gas prices in the markets, but stopped short of implementing mandatory demand reduction steps including a plan to impose price caps on all gas imports. Moscow has threatened to stop even the limited flow of Russian gas that is still making its way to Europe if price caps are imposed.

The US is gearing up for its own Russian oil price cap: The US Treasury has issued a rough guide (pdf) for the private sector on how to comply with its incoming price cap on Russian oil. The onus will be on private players to make sure any purchases come in at or below a price limit set by the US and G7 members, or face possible sanctions. The cap is set to come in on 5 December for crude oil, and two months later for petroleum products, in line with the EU timeline for its full-blown ban of Russian oil.

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Mushroom leather coats and fish-skin sandals: The race to create new sustainable materials is in full swing in the world of luxury fashion, as brands use tech innovations to replace petrochemicals-based synthetics like nylon with more sustainable “future fabrics,” the Financial Times reports. Luxury brands including Burberry, Balenciaga and Stella McCartney have set up dedicated innovation labs and R&D departments experimenting with new materials, while others are looking to startups bringing innovations like waterless printing to speed up the process. The challenge is to satisfy high-end consumers’ desire for a luxury look and feel, which existing plant-based synthetic fabrics like rayon and viscose don’t provide, designers tell the FT. But high-quality, sustainable materials take time, and a whole lot of trial and error, to bring to the market. “It takes seven years to get something off the ground,” one materials science exec tells the salmon-colored paper.