The Hague is hearing another case against Israel in what could be a test of Israeli defiance of international law.
The International Court of Justice is holding hearings this week to determine what responsibilities Israel has to ensure aid gets to Palestinians in territory it occupies.
But Israel has shown in the past it has no issue with ignoring international law or court rulings.
So will any of these decisions have an impact on the 2. 3 million Palestinians in Gaza struggling to find food under an Israeli blockade that’s now lasted nearly two months?
Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault
Guests:
Sam Rose – senior acting director, UNRWA Affairs in Gaza
Michael Lynk – human rights lawyer and professor emeritus, Faculty of Law, Western University in London, Ontario
Mohamed Salah’s selfie celebration during Liverpool’s Premier League title-clinching win over Tottenham Hotspur has become an iconic moment.
The Egyptian scored the Reds’ fourth goal in Sunday’s 5-1 victory at Anfield and, after celebrating his strike, borrowed a phone from a staff member before taking a photograph of himself and the cheering Liverpool fans behind him.
But some have asked could it have been a marketing idea, because the phone Salah used is made by one of Liverpool’s sponsors.
“At the beginning of the season I always take selfies with players [who score], so for this one I said ‘OK, I have to think of something special because it’s a picture that’s going to be there forever’,” Salah told BBC Sport.
Salah, 32, has frequently posted selfies with Reds team-mates on social media, while his recent two-year contract extension announcement included a self-taken photograph.
Initially observers thought Salah had taken the phone off a fan in the crowd, but it was a Liverpool staff member located behind the advertising hoardings in front of the Kop.
The photograph, which Salah and Liverpool posted on their social media accounts, has millions of likes and views.
But it has courted some controversy with observers wondering if it was a natural celebration, or an advert for Google Pixel, an official partner of the club.
In response, others have pointed out they could not know Salah would have scored – and none of the first three goalscorers did this celebration – although it was his 33rd goal of the season so not much of a surprise.
Post-match Salah took selfies again – which Google Pixel posted on social media.
Salah could have been booked for delaying the restart of play with the celebration, but referee Thomas Bramall kept his cards in his pocket.
Team-mate Cody Gakpo had earlier been shown a yellow card for celebrating his goal to make it 3-1 by taking off his shirt to reveal an ‘I belong to Jesus’ T-shirt.
BBC Sport has asked Liverpool and the Football Association (FA) for comment on the Salah selfie story.
The FA has rules around advertising on kits and betting companies – but there do not appear to be specific rules prohibiting something like this incident, even if it was intentional marketing.
Despite all the hype, Salah is far from the first footballer to celebrate a goal with a selfie.
Perhaps the highest-profile one until now was Roma forward Francesco Totti doing so after scoring in a 2015 derby against Lazio.
Then 38, he was handed a phone by one of Roma’s coaches before taking the photo in front of the club’s fans.
But plenty of other players have done it too.
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Mohamed Salah’s selfie celebration during Liverpool’s Premier League title-clinching win over Tottenham Hotspur has become an iconic moment.
The Egyptian scored the Reds’ fourth goal in Sunday’s 5-1 victory at Anfield and, after celebrating his strike, borrowed a phone from a staff member before taking a photograph of himself and the cheering Liverpool fans behind him.
But some have asked could it have been a marketing idea, because the phone Salah used is made by one of Liverpool’s sponsors.
“At the beginning of the season I always take selfies with players [who score], so for this one I said ‘OK, I have to think of something special because it’s a picture that’s going to be there forever’,” Salah told BBC Sport.
Salah, 32, has frequently posted selfies with Reds team-mates on social media, while his recent two-year contract extension announcement included a self-taken photograph.
Initially observers thought Salah had taken the phone off a fan in the crowd, but it was a Liverpool staff member located behind the advertising hoardings in front of the Kop.
The photograph, which Salah and Liverpool posted on their social media accounts, has millions of likes and views.
But it has courted some controversy with observers wondering if it was a natural celebration, or an advert for Google Pixel, an official partner of the club.
In response, others have pointed out they could not know Salah would have scored – and none of the first three goalscorers did this celebration – although it was his 33rd goal of the season so not much of a surprise.
Post-match Salah took selfies again – which Google Pixel posted on social media.
Salah could have been booked for delaying the restart of play with the celebration, but referee Thomas Bramall kept his cards in his pocket.
Team-mate Cody Gakpo had earlier been shown a yellow card for celebrating his goal to make it 3-1 by taking off his shirt to reveal an ‘I belong to Jesus’ T-shirt.
BBC Sport has asked Liverpool and the Football Association (FA) for comment on the Salah selfie story.
The FA has rules around advertising on kits and betting companies – but there do not appear to be specific rules prohibiting something like this incident, even if it was intentional marketing.
Despite all the hype, Salah is far from the first footballer to celebrate a goal with a selfie.
Perhaps the highest-profile one until now was Roma forward Francesco Totti doing so after scoring in a 2015 derby against Lazio.
Then 38, he was handed a phone by one of Roma’s coaches before taking the photo in front of the club’s fans.
But plenty of other players have done it too.
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Skip instagram post by mosalah
Allow Instagram content?
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Israel’s domestic security chief Ronen Bar has said he would stand down on June 15, following weeks of boiling tensions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who cited a lack of trust as he attempted to fire Bar in a move that sparked mass protests.
The two men have publicly traded accusations and counteraccusations. Political turmoil ensued, but Netanyahu’s survival tactics appear to have prevailed.
“After 35 years of service, in order to allow an orderly process for appointing a permanent successor and for professional handover, I will end my role on June 15, 2025,” the Shin Bet chief told a memorial event at his agency, according to a statement on Monday.
Bar had contested the sacking in a legal case that polarised the country. In an affidavit before the Supreme Court on Sunday, Netanyahu described the Bar as a “liar”.
The comment came almost a week after Bar made a sworn statement to the court in which he accused the prime minister of demanding personal loyalty and ordering him to spy on anti-government protesters.
“The accusation, according to which I allegedly demanded action against innocent civilians, or against a non-violent and legitimate protest during the protests of 2023, is an absolute lie,” Netanyahu said in his court statement.
In turn, Bar denied accusations by Netanyahu and his associates that the Shin Bet security agency had failed to issue timely warnings about Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Bar argued instead that his ouster was motivated by a desire to halt the “pursuit of truth” about the events leading up to October 7 and also the corruption charges that hang over Netanyahu in an ongoing, long-drawn-out trial.
Netanyahu proposed Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit as the next Shin Bet chief, but reversed his nomination after the pick was criticised by the United States, a key backer of Israel.
Bar’s dismissal was announced by the government last month but frozen by the Supreme Court. The move triggered mass demonstrations, with critics accusing Netanyahu and his government of undermining the institutions underpinning Israel’s democracy by seeking Bar’s removal.
Some Israelis denounced what they saw as an autocratic shift by Netanyahu, who has been launching impeachment proceedings against a number of critics, including Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
The Israeli parliament last month approved a law giving politicians more power over the appointment of judges, a key component of Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary.
According to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who sponsored the bill, the measure was intended to “restore balance” between the legislative and judicial branches. Critics, however, said the new law was a “nail in the coffin of Israeli democracy”.
Major power outages across large areas of Spain and Portugal, as well as parts of southern France, knocked out traffic lights and disrupted public transportation and airport operations on Monday.
Officials did not say what caused the outages, but several denied any foul play.
“Grid operators in both countries [Spain and Portugal] are working on finding the cause, and on restoring the electricity supply,” the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, wrote in a post on X.
Costa was the prime minister of Portugal between 2015 and 2024.
“At this point, there are no indications of any cyberattack,” he said.
Here is what we know:
What happened in Europe and when?
Power outages swept across much of the Iberian Peninsula around 10:30 GMT — 12:30pm local time in Spain, and 11:30am in Portugal.
Parts of southern France were also briefly affected, but the service was quickly restored.
Critical infrastructure was heavily impacted: Metro systems in Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon were shut down, while major airports such as Madrid-Barajas and Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado faced significant delays and partial closures.
According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, the outage “set Spain back to the 19th century”.
“Trains are not operating and traffic lights are down, causing chaos. Many cities are completely dark,” Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said, reporting from Valencia Airport in Spain.
“Authorities have stated that it is the first time in history such a large-scale blackout has occurred,” she added.
Demanda de energía eléctrica en tiempo real. Datos de Red Eléctrica Española. Así está la cosa ahora, siete horas después del batacazo: lenta recuperación, pero muy lejos aún de la normalidad. #apagón pic. twitter. com/8VcCxSUIDN
Translation: Real-time electricity demand. Data from Red Electrica. This is how things are now, seven hours after the blackout: slow recovery, but still far from normal.
The graph shows that electricity use dropped from about 26,000 megawatts to just 12,000 in a few minutes.
Where did the outage happen?
Spain and Portugal, home to around 60 million people together, were the worst affected.
Spain: Major urban centres such as Avila, Madrid, Murcia, Galicia, Alicante, Zaragoza, Barcelona and Seville reported widespread disruptions. The Canaries and Balearic Islands were not affected.
Portugal: Lisbon and Porto experienced comparable challenges.
Southern France: Parts of the French Basque Country saw brief power outages. But officials from the French electricity transmission network said the interruptions lasted only a few minutes.
Morocco: Some reports suggested that internet providers in Morocco also struggled to keep their services up, briefly, because of network connections with France and the outages there.
People queue at a bus stop at Rossio Square, after the Lisbon subway was stopped, in Lisbon, Portugal [Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP]
What else was affected?
The Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended for the day. Organisers said there would be no more action on Monday “in order to guarantee general safety”.
Madrid’s firefighters carried out more than 200 “elevator interventions” across the city while health services carried out 167 interventions, most for respiratory issues and anxiety attacks.
Meanwhile in Lisbon, according to local media reports, people rushed to grocery stores to stock up on water and non-perishable goods.
What caused the power outage?
Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said that everything points to the major blackout starting in Spain.
The exact cause is still unclear, and while there’s no evidence yet of a cyberattack, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he isn’t ruling anything out. He warned against speculation, but said “no cause can be discredited at this point”.
The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the bloc’s cyber security arm, said at current evidence points to a cable fault.
But experts have also in recent weeks warned that an excess of solar power generation in the grid could trigger blackouts. In early April, Belgium’s electricity grid operator cautioned that too much electricity generation could destabilise the grid.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Spain has seen a record number of hours with negative power prices in recent months as more solar and wind energy has been fed into the grid. However, until now, the oversupply hadn’t led to blackouts.
What is the latest on the ground?
Electricity has returned to parts of northern, southern and western Spain, the grid operator said on Monday.
Spain’s Transportation Minister Oscar Puente said medium- and long-distance train services are unlikely to resume before tomorrow. Meanwhile, Red Electrica has estimated that full restoration could take between six to 10 hours.
Power has now been restored in parts of Catalonia, Aragon, the Basque Country, Galicia, Asturias, Navarre, Castile and Leon, Extremadura, Andalusia, and La Rioja, according to authorities.
According to Spanish news agency EFE, electricity consumption in Spain had reached over 50 percent of the usual level by 4:30pm local time (18:30 GMT).
Portugal’s grid operator, REN, said that production has resumed at the Castelo do Bode hydroelectric plant and the Tapada do Outeiro thermoelectric facility.
TV presenter Helen Skelton has revealed the real reason that her family snubbed supporting her as she completed her fourth London Marathon at the weekend in an Instagram post
Helen Skelton ran her fourth London Marathon this weekend
Helen Skelton has shared the real reason her family snubbed supporting her while running the London Marathon. The TV presenter took on the gruelling race for the forth time on Sunday as she raised money for Children with Cancer UK.
She finished the intense run around the capital’s streets in an impressive time of 4:32:31. Helen proudly posed with her medal after the race as she said: “Romeo Done. Thanks for the encouragement. Thanks for coming out to cheer.” Despite her mega achievement, Helen later revealed she didn’t have her family at the finish line waiting to celebrate with her. The former Blue Peter host addressed their absence after receiving concern from fans.
Helen revealed her family watched her brother play football instead(Image: Instagram/helenskelton)
In a post to her followers, she revealed that her family went to watch her footballer brother Gavin in a charity match instead. She wrote: “A lot of people asked me where my family was today… Well let’s just say the battle for favourite child continues well into our 40s… . “
Helen then shared a photo of a football match as she shared: “Standard… whole gang went to watch the real hero in our family who casually helped raise over 4k for charity in a footy match and never went on about it.
“Just got on with it. Proud sister. “
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Helen did, however, receive the support of her celebrity pals. Strictly Come Dancing professional Dianne Buswell commented: “Legend so good to see you.”
Giovanna Fletcher wrote: “YES!!!! Xxx.” Jake Quickenden praised: “Well in mate.” Loose Women’s Kaye Adams said: “Yay!!!!!!” Gorka Marquez gushed: “you are a legend!!! Proud of you.”
Gemma Atkinson added: “Incredible Helen!!!” Helen wasn’t the only celebrity to take part in the race as the Masked Singer host Joel Dommett had a very tricky time.
He revealed he woke up in an ambulance after he collapsed while trying to complete the annual race. Ahead of the big day, Joel shared an ambitious itinerary that showed his plan to perform stand up in Leeds on Saturday night before returning to London to take part in the marathon the next morning.
Helen was supported by her celeb pals including Dianne Buswell(Image: Instagram/helenskelton)
He planned to take on the race and complete it in less than three hours – before then enjoying an ice bath. The TV star also had plans to film a project on Sunday evening – but his day was thrown off schedule when things went wrong in the middle of the race.
Fans following Joel as he made progress grew concerned when they noticed his status hadn’t updated after the 15th mile. Joel later revealed that he had passed out and collapsed not long after that point and needed emergency treatment.
Taking to Instagram later on Sunday, the Masked Singer host revealed he managed to complete the race despite passing out in the middle of the race.
After forcing himself to complete the challenge, Joel wrote: “Not the race I expected! I fainted at mile 17 – don’t really remember much but I woke up in an ambulance! “
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He continued: “Thanks to Frankie and Barry for being amazing. I really wanted to finish it. After a few hours my pulse was back and I got going again at a very different pace but really got to soak it all in. Proud of myself for finishing. ” Joel ultimately crossed the finish line in 6 hours, 3 minutes and 27 seconds.
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