Axios

Australians were shell-shocked by elections yesterday that kept Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his center-right Liberal party in power.

Why it matters: Polls had consistently shown a win by the Labor opposition, which promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Waves of severe thunderstorms struck the Southern Plains Saturday, bringing tornadoes, large hail and flooding rains, and the National Weather Service warns more severe storms are set to hit the region.

Details: The NWS Norman said an EF2 tornado with winds of up to 130 mph struck east of Geronimo, Oklahoma, early Saturday. It destroyed at least 2 homes and left 1 person with minor injuries, AP reports. Power lines downed by winds left tens of thousands of people in Oklahoma and Arkansas, where a suspected tornado damaged the roofs of numerous homes, per AP.

Australian voters turned against center-left opponents pushing aggressive strategies to combat climate change when they reelected Australia's conservative government in the country's national elections on Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Our thought bubble via Amy Harder: "The elections indicate that Australia will continue to closely resemble the Trump administration’s positioning on climate change. Climate advocates had said this election would be a referendum on the current leadership’s positions on climate change, the results suggest that either voters don’t care as much about the issue compared to others or they prefer less aggressive measures, as the current leadership is pursuing."

A report on the gas leak at a Southern California Gas Co. storage facility in October 2015 — the largest-known release of methane in U.S. history — was due to a corroded pipe casing, safety failures by a utility and inadequate regulations, the AP reports.

Why it matters: SoCalGas's blowout in its Aliso Canyon storage facility was deemed preventable as the company failed to investigate previous well failures and didn't properly examine its aging wells. Stricter state regulations followed the disaster, the report found.

Australia's conservative government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison won the national election on Saturday as the Labor Party opponent, Bill Shorten, conceded, the Washington Post reports.

Our thought bubble from Axios' Dave Lawler: "Australia has shuffled through 5 prime ministers since 2013, and polls suggested there would be yet another change at the top this week. Instead, Morrison has pulled off an upset in an election where taxes, climate change and Australia’s approach to China were key issues."