Extreme weather in Europe is an urgent reminder of the climate crisis

It has been another week of extreme weather events in Europe, with at least seven people dying in wildfires in Portugal, while Storm Boris caused landslides and floods in northern Italy having already left vast swathes of central Europe underwater and more than 20 people dead. The destruction in Europe followed devastating floods elsewhere last week, which left whole villages submerged in Myanmar and chaotic scenes impacting more than a million people in Nigeria.

Understanding the role the climate crisis plays in these disasters is a central tenet of our reporting on extreme weather events. This week Europe correspondent Jon Henley, who has been covering the impact of the floods in countries including Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic, reported comments from a senior EU official on the links between the burning and flooding and climate breakdown. Europe environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan reported from near Vienna, as the post-flood clear up began, as did conversations about how Austria can better protect itself from flooding in the future. Ajit also wrote an excellent analysis about the global lack of political will to make us more prepared for these kinds of storms, especially given the direct connection between global heating and the intensity of heavy rain events. As one scientist warned: “It’s clear that even highly developed countries are not safe from climate change, as long as the world burns oil, gas and coal, heavy rainfall and other weather extremes will intensify, making our planet a more dangerous and expensive place to live.”

Echoing that point in our opinion section was Anatol Lieven, who wrote that it is climate breakdown, rather than the military threat of states such as Russia and China, that is the biggest threat to global security – and should be treated as such.

Yesterday, we marked a year since the launch of Guardian Europe, our fifth digital edition of the Guardian which aims to bring journalism about the world to Europe and in-depth reporting and coverage of Europe to the world. It’s been a far greater success than we anticipated. Thanks to that renewed investment – and additional financial support from European readers – we’ve been able to cover these extreme weather events in Europe and beyond with the rigour they deserve.

An already volatile climate in the Middle East took another shocking turn this week with two waves of deadly attacks in Lebanon and Syria, involving coordinated explosions of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah. The attacks were blamed on Israel and were condemned across the region, and all eyes are now on the increase in hostilities at the Lebanese-Israeli border. William Christou in Beirut, Andrew Roth in Washington, Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem and Jason Burke covered news of the attacks and their aftermath, and William wrote a powerful dispatch on the panic in Lebanon after speaking to eye-witnesses and survivors. Dan Sabbagh, Lili Bayer and Dan Milmo investigated how the attacks were carried out, while Julian Borger wrote about how the region is now even closer to the brink. Helen Davidson captured the moment the crisis took a strange and unexpected detour through Taiwan, as a local company was caught up in the unprecedented events.

Our US team had swift and in-depth reporting of the apparent second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, including this informative visual guide, while Lauren Gambino and Joan E Greve outlined the rise of political violence in the US, where there are now more guns than people. Rachel Leingang reported on the far-right conspiracies that spread online following this latest incident.

The trial of Dominique Pélicot, a 71-year-old accused of drugging his wife so that he and dozens of strangers could rape her at her home over a number of years, continues to send shockwaves through France and around the world. Angelique Chrisafis was in court in Avignon as he took the stand for a day of harrowing testimony, and has written powerfully on the case throughout.

For many months Guardian Australia’s Ben Doherty has been following the case of Amber Haigh, a 19-year-old who vanished in 2002. This week a couple were cleared of Haigh’s murder. In the latest episode of a special Full Story podcast series about the case Ben looked at the two “indispensable facts” the judge said the prosecution failed to prove.

England’s 10 national parks cover 10% of the country and should be key to addressing the nature and climate crisis. But the state of nature inside the parks is often worse than outside. Damian Carrington investigated one revealed one reason why this might be: the lack of diversity on the boards that oversee the parks. Damian also explored how the parks, set up 75 years ago for a war-weary public, came to be, what has gone wrong, and how to fix them.

As part of an eye-opening mini-series about the hidden lives of migrants, Czech journalist Saša Uhlová went undercover as a farm worker in Germany and picked and chopped vegetables for up to 14 hours a day to supply an organic farm shop.

Our opinion section ran a groundbreaking, 8,000-word discussion piece between acclaimed TV counsellor Orna Guralnik, who is Israeli, and Christine, a Palestinian. The two explored with insight, clarity and extraordinary sensitivity, the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians and the current crisis in Gaza, in a profound and fascinating dialogue.

Many have looked on with alarm as Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who has been called a neo-fascist and a danger to her country, has been embraced by a succession of European leaders. Alexander Stille wrote a gripping long read on the shapeshifting Meloni.

Huw Edwards was once the face of the BBC, the newsreader who announced the death of the Queen. This week he was given a suspended sentence for accessing indecent images of children. Emma Brockes wrote a column about the ludicrous arguments bad men make to excuse indefensible behaviour, like Edwards’ claim that not getting into Oxford university contributed to lifelong issues with self-esteem.

I loved Marina Hyde on countering the gossipy insinuations being made about Charlotte Owen, the young former Boris Johnson adviser who now sits in the House of Lords; Charlotte Edwardes’ interview with Demi Moore (especially her use of “linguistic repackaging”); and Neneh Cherry opening herself up to questions from Observer readers and famous fans including Michael Stipe, Questlove and Bernardine Evaristo.

One more thing … My favourite piece from last week wasn’t included in my last email due to an editing error (mine), but I’m keen for as many people to get the chance to read it as possible. In 2001, Guardian writer Esther Addley was tasked with finding the family of a man who literally fell to Earth, from the wheel bay of a plane heading to London Heathrow. Esther revisited the case after being contacted by Muhammad Ayaz’s brother – and discovered an unexpected twist to a tragic tale in Saturday magazine and on our Today in Focus podcast.

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