Eva Premk Bogataj

Europe did not mainly lose rain in July 2026. It lost the ability to hold water. Why the same rainfall deficit now produces a worse drought than in 1921.

The Vajont disaster was not a failure of concrete, but of judgement. A long-read essay on the 1963 catastrophe, Tina Merlin, Monte Toc, the failed model, and the fatal gap between knowledge and decision.

Dogs have died within minutes after swimming in lakes that looked perfectly clean. Across Europe — from Berlin and Bavaria to Switzerland and the French Alps — scientists are increasingly linking these deaths to toxic cyanobacterial mats growing on the bottom and along the shore, invisible to standard bathing-water monitoring. This article examines what these cases reveal, why “excellent” water quality may still hide a lethal risk, and how European authorities have responded.