This week marked another dangerous escalation in the Middle East as Iran launched a wave of drones and missiles at Israel in retaliation for the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. Yesterday, US officials confirmed that Israel had responded with its own military operations against Iran.

Throughout the week, our team of international correspondents provided round the clock coverage on our live blogs. They also filed reports on the fallout from the initial attack as well as the mood in Israel. Diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour interviewed Iran’s most senior diplomat in London, who said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seeking to trap the west into a “total war” across the Middle East that would have incalculable consequences for the region and the world. And yesterday, Peter Beaumont analysed a conflict in which both sides are “playing with fire”.

It was also a dramatic week in Australia, where two separate stabbing incidents in Sydney shocked the nation. We covered the horrific Bondi Junction attack from the first reports on Saturday and throughout the week. Guardian Australia’s Nikki Marshall was shopping in the mall where the attack happened. After reporting from the scene for our live blog, she wrote about her terrifying experience. Then, on Monday evening, a 16-year-old boy stabbed an Orthodox priest during a live-streamed church service which was followed by a riot outside the church. We looked at why tensions escalated so quickly and asked why police deemed this to be a terrorist attack when Saturday’s attack was not.

For all of these events, as well as this week’s other big story, Donald Trump’s trial, our ability to report on the news in real-time through our live blogs was essential. The Guardian pioneered this format in the late 1990s and it is now a crucial and innovative tool in our daily news reporting. These were unfolding events, with uncertain outcomes and disinformation swirling around social media. The best way to guide readers through what was happening was to tell them, step-by-step, what we knew, when we knew it.

The fact that the Guardian is a global operation is crucial to making this work. The initial Iranian threat was blogged first by colleagues in the US, then Australia and the UK, before going around the globe again. This means our live coverage can be seamlessly 24/7, with live bloggers and editors working together to make sure that readers, wherever they are in the world and at whatever point they join the blog, get what they need to know and can trust what they read.

In Kharkiv in north-east Ukraine, regular Russian bombing and missile attacks are targeting civilian infrastructure (pictured above), leading the mayor to warn that the city risks becoming a “second Aleppo”. Dan Sabbagh filed a fascinating dispatch from a city on the brink. The piece included stunning photography by Julia Kochetova.

The historic Donald Trump hush money trial began in New York this week, marking the first time a US president has faced criminal charges at trial. Our team in the US captured the unprecedented and often strange scenes – from jurors airing their views on the ex-president, to Trump appearing to nod off during proceedings.

The scandal over carers’ payments in the UK, exposed by the Guardian last week, continues to grow. This week we revealed “threatening and cruel” tactics deployed by government officials and harrowing victims’ stories including a 92-year-old woman with dementia and Parkinson’s who was forced to pay back £7,000.

Phoenix is the United States’ hottest city, a sprawling urban heat island. Nina Lakhani headed there to learn about a tree-planting programme that vulnerable residents hope will help to cool those most in need. Maanvi Singh’s investigation into a water rights sale in Arizona was a gripping and worrying read exposing the tactics of companies that strategically buy farmland along the Colorado River with the intention of piping valuable natural resources to suburbs, hundreds of miles away.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the nation’s biggest water company Thames Water is on the brink of collapse. Alex Lawson and Anna Isaac dug into the deepening crisis, revealing details of the government’s contingency plans to renationalise it 35 years after it was sold off.

Everton, a founding member of the Premier League who have played more seasons in the English top division than any other football club, are flirting with relegation and insolvency. Simon Goodley looked at the Liverpudlian team’s grim prospects, and what could happen next.

We announced the winner of our inaugural UK invertebrate of the year competition - the Lumbricus terrestris, also known as the common earthworm. As Patrick Barkham wrote, “the soil-maker, food provider and grand recycler ... is increasingly hailed in an era where regenerative farmers and many others are paying new attention to soil health”.

Taylor Swift continues to tower over pop culture. Yesterday she released her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, and our music team was there for every semiquaver. Alexis Petridis gave it four stars and concluded that “If we have to have a single artist dominating pop, we could have picked worse.” Meanwhile, our resident Swiftologist, Laura Snapes, took a deep dive into the lyrics.

After a story that gripped the art world last week, our European culture editor Philip Oltermann managed to get hold of the artwork which had been sneaked into a German gallery by an employee. Philip revealed that, rather than being a frustrated artist seeking their breakthrough by exhibiting their work alongside Andy Warhol, the artwork was instead “designed to provoke debate about elitism in the art world”.

Finally, I loved our interview with folk rock legend Linda Thompson, who was told her behaviour was “worse than the Sex Pistols”; One Day author David Nicholls’ lovely paean to the healing power of long, wet, solo walks, with evocative photographs by Cian Oba-Smith; and Lisa Allardice’s interview with the Scottish poet Jackie Kay – noting in particular her mother’s response to Kay placing a copy of the Guardian in her late father’s casket: “I hadn’t read it yet!”

One more thing: Witch is a 13-part podcast series from the BBC which examines the figure of the witch in history, in our imaginations, as a symbol of power and terror. Presented by India Rakusen – a former host of the Guardian’s flagship podcast, Today in Focus – it’s pure pleasure, and I learned a lot.

Cook this| Aubergine, mint and cucumber yoghurt

Nigel Slater’s recipe for a particularly bright and zingy way with roast veg. The herby cucumber yoghurt also makes a good base for a sumptuous sandwich filling, especially for smoked salmon or grilled vegetables. Try cooking it using our new Feast app, which is available now on iOS with Android coming soon.

Watch this| Can you make good music with AI?

Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley reacts to songs made with Suno AI, a new AI music generator. Like other paying users, Guardian Australia now owns the rights to these songs. But is this technology actually good enough to threaten the livelihoods of musicians?

Sign up to this| Fashion Statement

Last week for our fashion newsletter (sign up here!), Chloe Mac Donnell spoke with nine stylists, designers and campaigners about why there’s plenty of reason to feel hopeful about the future of sustainable fashion. “We’ve got a whole new generation determined to hold the industry accountable,” says one.

The Guardian’s crosswords and Wordiply are here to keep you entertained throughout the weekend.