Spain and Portugal have been hit by a massive power outage that cut off electricity to millions of people across both countries, including their capitals, and also affected parts of south-west France, according to grid operators.

The blackout late on Monday morning knocked out train traffic, metro networks, phone lines, traffic lights and ATM machines. It was not immediately clear what caused the outage or exactly how many people had been affected.

The Spanish government convened a crisis meeting at the national electricity operator, Red Eléctrica, attended by the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and his interior, finance, environment and transport ministers.

As power began gradually to be restored by the middle of the afternoon, Sánchez called a second emergency cabinet meeting at the government headquarters in Moncloa in Madrid, his office said in a Telegram message.

Red Eléctrica described the incident as “exceptional and totally extraordinary”. It said it had brought back power in parts of the the north and south of the country, but it could take between six and 10 hours to fully restore the electricity supply.

Eduardo Prieto, the company’s head of operations, said it “cannot speculate right now on the causes” of the blackout, adding that everything was being done “to shed light” on the origin of the power cut.

The government said in a statement it was “working to determine the origin and impact and is dedicating all resources to resolve it as quickly as possible”.

Spanish media reported that the national cybersecurity institute was investigating the possibility of a cyber-attack. The country’s national security council was also convened on Monday afternoon to discuss the blackout.

In Brussels, Teresa Ribera, a European Commission vice-president and a former Spanish ecology minister, urged people to be patient while waiting for power to the restored. She said there was as yet no evidence the outage was intentional.

The Portuguese cabinet also called an emergency meeting at the prime minister’s residence. The country’s REN operator said the entire Iberian peninsula was affected by the blackout, which it said happened at 12.33am (11.33 GMT), plus part of France.

The French high-voltage operator RTE said parts of the south-west of the country had been briefly affected but power was restored by mid-afternoon. It said it could export power to Spain “as soon as the Iberian grid has the technical capacity to receive it”.

Spain’s railway operator Adif said the power cut halted trains across the entire country, with services not set to resume until at least 6pm. The airports operator Aena said “several incidents” had occurred at Spanish airports. Mobile phone networks went down and internet access was cut.

In Portugal, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country. The government said the incident appeared to stem from problems abroad.

“It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain,” a cabinet minister, António Leitão Amaro, told the national news agency Lusa. Lisbon metro carriages were evacuated and ATMs and electronic payment systems cut out.

In Madrid and other cities, traffic lights ceased to function, causing gridlock as vehicles slowed to avoid collisions, while metros were also halted. Spain’s national road authority, DGT, urged motorists to avoid using the roads as much as possible.

El País newspaper posted photos and video on its website of passengers navigating darkened metro tunnels in the Spanish capital and police directing traffic on the city’s streets. Footage also showed its own reporters working by torchlight.

The Spanish health ministry said in a social media update it was in contact with regional authorities to assess the scope of the widespread blackout but reassured the public that hospitals had supplementary systems in place.

A graph on Spain’s electricity network website showing demand across the country indicated a steep drop at about 12.15pm, from 27,500MW to almost 15,000MW.

The European Commission said it was in contact with Spanish and Portuguese authorities to understand the underlying cause of the blackout. The commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she had spoken with Sánchez and the EU’s executive would “coordinate efforts and share information to help restore power”.

With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press

Spain and Portugal have been hit by a massive power outage that cut off electricity to millions of people across both countries, including their capitals, and also affected parts of south-west France, according to grid operators.

The blackout late on Monday morning knocked out train traffic, metro networks, phone lines, traffic lights and ATM machines. It was not immediately clear what caused the outage or exactly how many people had been affected.

The Spanish government convened a crisis meeting at the national electricity operator, Red Eléctrica, attended by the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and his interior, finance, environment and transport ministers.

As power began gradually to be restored by the middle of the afternoon, Sánchez called a second emergency cabinet meeting at the government headquarters in Moncloa in Madrid, his office said in a Telegram message.

Red Eléctrica described the incident as “exceptional and totally extraordinary”. It said it had brought back power in parts of the the north and south of the country, but it could take between six and 10 hours to fully restore the electricity supply.

Eduardo Prieto, the company’s head of operations, said it “cannot speculate right now on the causes” of the blackout, adding that everything was being done “to shed light” on the origin of the power cut.

The government said in a statement it was “working to determine the origin and impact and is dedicating all resources to resolve it as quickly as possible”.

Spanish media reported that the national cybersecurity institute was investigating the possibility of a cyber-attack. The country’s national security council was also convened on Monday afternoon to discuss the blackout.

In Brussels, Teresa Ribera, a European Commission vice-president and a former Spanish ecology minister, urged people to be patient while waiting for power to the restored. She said there was as yet no evidence the outage was intentional.

The Portuguese cabinet also called an emergency meeting at the prime minister’s residence. The country’s REN operator said the entire Iberian peninsula was affected by the blackout, which it said happened at 12.33am (11.33 GMT), plus part of France.

The French high-voltage operator RTE said parts of the south-west of the country had been briefly affected but power was restored by mid-afternoon. It said it could export power to Spain “as soon as the Iberian grid has the technical capacity to receive it”.

Spain’s railway operator Adif said the power cut halted trains across the entire country, with services not set to resume until at least 6pm. The airports operator Aena said “several incidents” had occurred at Spanish airports. Mobile phone networks went down and internet access was cut.

In Portugal, the outage hit the capital, Lisbon, and surrounding areas, as well as northern and southern parts of the country. The government said the incident appeared to stem from problems abroad.

“It looks like it was a problem with the distribution network, apparently in Spain,” a cabinet minister, António Leitão Amaro, told the national news agency Lusa. Lisbon metro carriages were evacuated and ATMs and electronic payment systems cut out.

In Madrid and other cities, traffic lights ceased to function, causing gridlock as vehicles slowed to avoid collisions, while metros were also halted. Spain’s national road authority, DGT, urged motorists to avoid using the roads as much as possible.

El País newspaper posted photos and video on its website of passengers navigating darkened metro tunnels in the Spanish capital and police directing traffic on the city’s streets. Footage also showed its own reporters working by torchlight.

The Spanish health ministry said in a social media update it was in contact with regional authorities to assess the scope of the widespread blackout but reassured the public that hospitals had supplementary systems in place.

A graph on Spain’s electricity network website showing demand across the country indicated a steep drop at about 12.15pm, from 27,500MW to almost 15,000MW.

The European Commission said it was in contact with Spanish and Portuguese authorities to understand the underlying cause of the blackout. The commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she had spoken with Sánchez and the EU’s executive would “coordinate efforts and share information to help restore power”.

With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press

Vladimir Putin has declared a three-day full ceasefire in the war with Ukraine in May to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union in the second world war.

The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run from the start of 8 May to the end of 10 May, and called on Ukraine to join it as well. “All hostilities will be suspended during this period,” the Kremlin said in a statement. “Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example.”

The Kremlin said that in the event of violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian side, Russian armed forces would deliver an “adequate and effective” response.

Ukraine responded to Putin’s announcement by calling for an immediate month-long ceasefire.

“If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately. Why wait until May 8th? If the fire can be ceased now and since any date for 30 days – so it is real, not just for a parade,” the country’s foreign secretary, Andrii Sybiha, wrote on social media.

“Ukraine is ready to support a lasting, durable, and full ceasefire. And this is what we are constantly proposing, for at least 30 days,” he added.

The White House said Donald Trump wanted to see “a permanent ceasefire” and that the US president was becoming “increasingly frustrated” with the leaders of both Russia and Ukraine.

Putin, in his statement, also said he was ready to engage constructively with international partners to address the “root causes” of the conflict.

For Russia, that terminology serves as code for some of its more hardline aims in a broader settlement – including preventing Ukraine from joining Nato, limiting the size of its military, and having a say over Ukraine’s domestic politics.

If respected by both sides, the May ceasefire would mark the first full ceasefire since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.

However, the temporary nature of the truce suggests that US efforts to broker a broader peace deal remain elusive.

Russia has previously rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions. Ukraine accepted it, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country’s president, has said.

Kyiv and Moscow had previously agreed to a partial Easter ceasefire, though each side accused the other of violating it. Since then, Russia has continued pounding Ukrainian cities, killing scores of civilians across the country.

The announcement of the ceasefire came as the Kremlin and Pyongyang confirmed for the first time that North Korean troops had been deployed to fight against Ukraine, following months of official silence on the widely reported deployment.

Ukraine reacted with scepticism to Putin’s latest ceasefire offer and pointed out that Russia announced a similar truce over the Easter period only to massively violate it.

Commentators suggested the offer was a move to avoid the embarrassing spectacle of Ukrainian long-range drones disrupting the Kremlin’s Victory Day parade on Red Square and embarrassing Russia’s president in front of international leaders in Moscow.

They added that the unilateral move was clearly directed at the White House. It follows Trump’s one-on-one meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday in Rome at the pope’s funeral – hailed by both sides as “constructive”.

In reality, Russia intended to continue its war, they suggested. Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian blogger and former interior ministry adviser, noted that Russia broke its own Easter ceasefire more than 3,000 times, according to Zelenskyy.

During the 30-hour period, the Russian army stopped its long-range missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. But it continued drone and artillery attacks across the frontline and even carried out infantry ground assaults, Ukrainian brigades confirmed.

Russian engineering units also used the lull to repair broken crossings and to carrying out de-mining, in preparation for further offensives, they said. There was speculation on Monday that the Kremlin would begin a large-scale offensive after the Victory Day truce ended.

Ukraine agreed in March to a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. Russia did not. Zelenskyy has called on the US and other partners to put pressure on Moscow, in order to bring about a “full and comprehensive ceasefire”.

Posting on social media, the Ukrainian journalist Svitlana Morenets predicted: “Putin announcing another short-term ceasefire means only one thing: there will be no peace deal in the coming weeks. And no truce on the frontline either. Putin is just putting on a show to calm Trump down. He also needs to stop Ukrainian drones from ruining his Victory parade.”

At the same time as Russia’s announcement was made on Monday, air raid sirens rang out in several parts of the country, warning of strikes in the east and central Cherkasy region.

In recent weeks, Russia has carried out a series of bloody missile strikes. They include an attack on Sumy – the deadliest this year – in which 35 people were killed. Last Thursday, another 12 people died in Kyiv, after a wave of drones and ballistic missiles struck the Ukrainian capital.

Putin’s ceasefire announcement comes amid mounting US frustration with Russia over its continued attacks on Ukraine.

Trump urged Russia on Sunday to stop its attacks in Ukraine while his top diplomat said the US might walk away from peace efforts if it did not see progress.

“I was very disappointed that missiles were [launched] by Russia,” Trump told reporters as he travelled back to the White House. “I want [Putin] to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal.”

Although Trump has repeatedly claimed he was close to ending the war, now in its fourth year, his efforts to broker a peace between Russia and Ukraine have so far yielded little result, stalled by Moscow’s hardline demands.

In a series of interviews with foreign media, Russia’s top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, hinted that Moscow continued to maintain maximalist demands – conditions that both Ukraine and the US have repeatedly pushed back against.

In an interview published with the Brazilian outlet O Globo, Lavrov said that Moscow insisted on the international recognition of its hold over Crimea, as well as the entirety of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as a condition for peace negotiations.

Speaking to CBS a day earlier, Lavrov also pushed against future western military support for Ukraine.

On 9 May, known as Victory Day, Russians celebrate the 1945 end of what they call the “Great Patriotic War”. The Victory Day parade traditionally features heavy weaponry and is intended as a display of Russian military strength, reinforcing a narrative of resilience and national pride.

The prosecutor of the international criminal court has been restrained from publicising any new applications for arrest warrants in the court’s Palestine case after judges ordered they must be kept secret, the Guardian has learned.

In an order issued behind closed doors this month, ICC judges are understood to have told the prosecutor, Karim Khan, he can no longer make public announcements referring to the existence of his applications for arrest warrants or his intention to seek them.

The new order comes as Khan is preparing a fresh round of applications for Israeli suspects in connection to alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Khan has already secured arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant. A warrant was also obtained for the leader of Hamas’s military wing but was withdrawn after he was confirmed dead.

The recent order imposing constraints on Khan comes amid tensions between the prosecutor and ICC judges over his handling of the Palestine investigation and several other cases in which he publicly announced his decision to seek warrants, a move that departed from his predecessor’s more discreet approach.

Khan has in recent months said he has applied for, but not yet obtained, arrest warrants for Myanmar’s military leader, as well as the Taliban’s supreme leader and Afghanistan’s chief justice. He also indicated at a UN meeting he would seek warrants for people accused of atrocities in Sudan’s West Darfur region.

The flurry of announcements came as Khan faced the prospect of US economic sanctions against him – which materialised in February – and in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against him by a member of his staff. Khan has denied the allegations, which external investigators are now examining.

According to court officials with knowledge of internal discussions, the publicity generated by Khan’s statements has frustrated ICC judges and staff within the prosecutor’s office due to concerns his actions have departed from routine practice and placed pressure on the judges considering the applications.

In their secret order in the Palestine case, the judges have blocked publicity that even alludes to the filing of applications for arrest warrants, and ordered Khan to refrain from disclosing any forthcoming requests, unless he receives their permission.

A separate panel of ICC judges had issued a similar order in at least one other case, three sources said, in an apparent sign of a wider crackdown on Khan’s approach.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor said they “cannot confirm or deny the existence or content of any judicial decision which has not been made public by the court”.

They said the prosecutor acted in accordance with the court’s legal framework and an arrest warrant application was “the outcome of an extensive, independent and impartial investigation in a situation under the court’s jurisdiction”.

The strategy of going public

The process for applying for ICC arrest warrants often occurs in closed proceedings. This can be to protect the integrity of investigations, ensure the safety of witnesses and victims, and improve the chances of locating and apprehending suspects.

However, the prosecutor has significant autonomy and is able to publicise arrest warrant applications if, for example, it could have a deterrent effect on continuing alleged crimes and does not hinder arrest opportunities.

Khan’s predecessor Fatou Bensouda only ever revealed the existence of an arrest warrant after it was approved by judges. The court’s first chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, publicly announced his intention to file applications on three occasions during his nine-year term.

Once approved, an arrest warrant confirms there are “reasonable grounds to believe” the accused individual has committed a crime within the ICC’s jurisdiction, and establishes a legal mechanism to try and bring the accused to the court, which is based in The Hague, to stand trial.

Khan first publicly announced an arrest warrant application in 2022, less than a year into his term, for suspects accused of crimes in Georgia. He repeated the strategy last year, when he revealed requests for warrants in the court’s Palestine investigation for Israeli and Hamas leaders in a dramatic video statement and interview with CNN.

The prosecutor’s decision to publicise the first round of arrest warrants in the Palestine case was opposed by some of Khan’s most senior staff, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. The move, they said, placed the three judges overseeing the case under unprecedented public pressure.

The panel of judges, which approved the warrants in November, appear to have now prevented Khan from following a similar approach when he files new arrest warrant applications in the case. Court sources said they expected the warrants to focus on alleged crimes in the West Bank.

Bensouda launched the ICC’s Palestine case as a formal criminal investigation in 2021. Khan inherited the inquiry and accelerated it after the Hamas-led 7 October attacks and Israel’s ensuing bombardment of Gaza.

The investigation reached a crescendo in May 2024 with Khan’s decision to seek warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials, but it has continued to examine a range of other alleged crimes, both in the Gaza offensive and the West Bank, where there has been an intensification of Israeli settler violence and deadly military operations.

The court did not respond to requests for comment.

For many cyclists, Jeremy Vine’s commitment to filming drivers he regarded as endangering his fellow two-wheeled travellers made him a hero. It also made the presenter the target of some extraordinary online hate from those who accused him of persecuting motorists.

After years of documenting clashes and close shaves on the road, Vine has announced he is ending his sharing of footage, saying the fallout they generated had become too hard to bear. “I’m stopping my cycling videos,” he announced. “The trolling just got too bad. They have had well over 100m views but in the end the anger they generate has genuinely upset me.”

He said a “regular theme” had been an apparent desire by some online attackers to see him “crushed under a truck”, something he described as a “very real danger” to commuting cyclists.

Vine accompanied his announcement with posts he had received from angry critics. One stated he was “beyond hated” and asked him to upload another video “if it’s you getting run down and hospitalised”. Another said they hoped the next motorist he confronted “kicks your traitor head in”. A third said: “It may be terrible but I hope he falls under the wheels of five cars that reverse and make sure the job’s done.”

The BBC Radio 2 and Channel 5 host said his aim had been to make drivers think about the dangers of trying to navigate a busy city on a bike. He admitted he could get a “little cross when a driver has, say, pulled out without looking”, but said he had only ever uploaded the videos to highlight the dangers involved.

Vine said his decision to stop the recordings followed the theft of his bike last week – an incident also captured on camera and posted online. “Do I want to get a replacement and go back into the trolling-furnace? As I say, it just got too hot,” he said. “A new cycle video would make my phone physically heat up in my pocket. There are at least two death threats against me currently being investigated by police.

“I enjoy debates but not abuse. It’s strange that getting interested in road safety can actually endanger a person. I see other cyclists facing the same and wonder how they deal with it. So when I get my new bike I’ll stay vigilant but won’t share my adventures.”

Vine’s latest and perhaps last video appears to show a taxi dropping off a passenger directly into a cycle lane – a move that prompted Vine to ring his bell in warning, only for the driver to honk his horn back at him. Some of his latest videos featured AI-generated imagery and songs, including one that riffed on a driver telling him he was “drifting to the middle” of a lane.

In 2017, a driver who beeped her horn and shouted abuse at Vine was convicted of threatening behaviour and a driving offence. The exchange was captured by Vine’s cameras. He posted it to Facebook, where it was viewed more than 15m times.

“I never made a penny from my videos,” Vine said. “They have gone completely crazy at times. They’ve started debates about whether, for example, you can undertake a vehicle turning left while you are in a cycle lane that is paint-only.

“In a lot of cases the answer is: yes, but don’t do it if you want to stay alive.”

The very nature of the UN is threatened by Israel’s refusal to accept the rights of its agencies to operate freely in the occupied Palestinian territories, the international court of justice has heard.

The statement was made at the start of five days of proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future within the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering Gaza.

Israel is not participating but has submitted oral evidence claiming its decision to end all cooperation with Unrwa, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, was necessary because of infiltration by Hamas.

In her 30-minute opening submission to the court, the UN under-secretary general for legal affairs, Elinor Hammarskjöld, opted for a full-throated assertion of the immunities and privileges of the UN and its subsidiary bodies under the UN charter and 1946 convention on UN privileges.

She said Israel had no right unilaterally to declare UN bodies were not impartial and so deny cooperation or aid, adding: “When the basic elements of this [the charter’s] legal framework are not observed, the very nature of the work of the organisation on behalf of its member states is in jeopardy.”

Hammarskjöld said that, if UN member states had complaints about the neutrality of an organisation such as Unrwa, established mechanisms existed for this to be addressed.

Israel’s complaints had been examined by relevant UN bodies but the full cooperation of member states, including the furnishing of documents, was also required, she said. This was a thinly coded assertion that Israel has not backed up some of its claims of mass Hamas infiltration with evidence to the UN. Independent investigations have also found that Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.

The Palestinian ambassador to the Netherlands, Ammar Hijazi, accused Israel of breaching international law in the occupied territories.

“Israel is starving, killing and displacing Palestinians while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organisations trying to save their lives,” he told the court.

“Nine of every 10 Palestinians have no access to safe drinking water. Storage facilities of the UN and other international agencies are empty. These are the facts. Starvation is here. Humanitarian aid is being used as a weapon of war.”

In a sign of the breakdown in relations, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said on Monday that the ICJ hearing was part of a “systematic persecution and delegitimisation of Israel”.

“It is not Israel that should be on trial. It is the UN and Unrwa,” he told reporters in Jerusalem.

In its written evidence to the court, Israel argues no obligation exists to respect the immunities of a UN agency “where the legitimate security concerns of a member state are severely undermined by the agency in question, whose conduct manifestly contravenes the fundamental principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

The UN general assembly has ordered the UN to seek an ICJ advisory opinion on whether Israel had overriden the immunities of a UN body by its policy of non cooperation. The policy has forced Unrwa to suspend operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

Hammarskjöld told the court the proceedings were crucial to clarify some fundamental elements of the legal framework of the UN’s status. She pointed out that Israel’s UN membership entailed legal obligations that were essential for the organisation to properly function and carry out the mandates. These included “good faith and cooperation with the organisation, respect for the safety of UN premises, property assets and personnel, and obligations concerning the immunities of UN properties so that the UN can fulfil its obligations”.

The Palestinian lawyers injected greater emotion into the pleadings by focusing on the impact of Israel’s refusal to allow aid into Gaza, for instance showing the judges Instagram postings of traumatised doctors describing conducting amputations on children without medicines.

Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It halted deliveries on 2 March, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war. Supplies are dwindling and the UN’s World Food Programme on Friday said it had sent out its “last remaining stocks” to kitchens.

Paul Reichler, representing the Palestinians, told judges that one of the Geneva conventions “not only lays down that the occupying power must agree to relief schemes on behalf of the population, but insists that it must facilitate them by all the means at its disposal”.

The UN was the first to address the court on Monday, followed by Palestinian representatives. In total, 40 states and four international organisations are scheduled to participate.

On Tuesday, South Africa, a staunch critic of Israel, will present its arguments. In hearings last year in a separate case at the court, the country accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza – a charge Israel denies. Those proceedings are still under way. Israel’s’s ally, the US, is scheduled to speak on Wednesday.

The court will probably take months to rule. Experts say the decision, though not legally binding, could profoundly impact international jurisprudence, international aid to Israel and public opinion.

The very nature of the UN is threatened by Israel’s refusal to accept the rights of its agencies to operate freely in the occupied Palestinian territories, the international court of justice has heard.

The statement was made at the start of five days of proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future within the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into its total blockade on aid entering Gaza.

Israel is not participating but has submitted oral evidence claiming its decision to end all cooperation with Unrwa, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, was necessary because of infiltration by Hamas.

In her 30-minute opening submission to the court, the UN under-secretary general for legal affairs, Elinor Hammarskjöld, opted for a full-throated assertion of the immunities and privileges of the UN and its subsidiary bodies under the UN charter and 1946 convention on UN privileges.

She said Israel had no right unilaterally to declare UN bodies were not impartial and so deny cooperation or aid, adding: “When the basic elements of this [the charter’s] legal framework are not observed, the very nature of the work of the organisation on behalf of its member states is in jeopardy.”

Hammarskjöld said that, if UN member states had complaints about the neutrality of an organisation such as Unrwa, established mechanisms existed for this to be addressed.

Israel’s complaints had been examined by relevant UN bodies but the full cooperation of member states, including the furnishing of documents, was also required, she said. This was a thinly coded assertion that Israel has not backed up some of its claims of mass Hamas infiltration with evidence to the UN. Independent investigations have also found that Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.

The Palestinian ambassador to the Netherlands, Ammar Hijazi, accused Israel of breaching international law in the occupied territories.

“Israel is starving, killing and displacing Palestinians while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organisations trying to save their lives,” he told the court.

“Nine of every 10 Palestinians have no access to safe drinking water. Storage facilities of the UN and other international agencies are empty. These are the facts. Starvation is here. Humanitarian aid is being used as a weapon of war.”

In a sign of the breakdown in relations, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said on Monday that the ICJ hearing was part of a “systematic persecution and delegitimisation of Israel”.

“It is not Israel that should be on trial. It is the UN and Unrwa,” he told reporters in Jerusalem.

In its written evidence to the court, Israel argues no obligation exists to respect the immunities of a UN agency “where the legitimate security concerns of a member state are severely undermined by the agency in question, whose conduct manifestly contravenes the fundamental principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

The UN general assembly has ordered the UN to seek an ICJ advisory opinion on whether Israel had overriden the immunities of a UN body by its policy of non cooperation. The policy has forced Unrwa to suspend operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

Hammarskjöld told the court the proceedings were crucial to clarify some fundamental elements of the legal framework of the UN’s status. She pointed out that Israel’s UN membership entailed legal obligations that were essential for the organisation to properly function and carry out the mandates. These included “good faith and cooperation with the organisation, respect for the safety of UN premises, property assets and personnel, and obligations concerning the immunities of UN properties so that the UN can fulfil its obligations”.

The Palestinian lawyers injected greater emotion into the pleadings by focusing on the impact of Israel’s refusal to allow aid into Gaza, for instance showing the judges Instagram postings of traumatised doctors describing conducting amputations on children without medicines.

Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It halted deliveries on 2 March, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war. Supplies are dwindling and the UN’s World Food Programme on Friday said it had sent out its “last remaining stocks” to kitchens.

Paul Reichler, representing the Palestinians, told judges that one of the Geneva conventions “not only lays down that the occupying power must agree to relief schemes on behalf of the population, but insists that it must facilitate them by all the means at its disposal”.

The UN was the first to address the court on Monday, followed by Palestinian representatives. In total, 40 states and four international organisations are scheduled to participate.

On Tuesday, South Africa, a staunch critic of Israel, will present its arguments. In hearings last year in a separate case at the court, the country accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza – a charge Israel denies. Those proceedings are still under way. Israel’s’s ally, the US, is scheduled to speak on Wednesday.

The court will probably take months to rule. Experts say the decision, though not legally binding, could profoundly impact international jurisprudence, international aid to Israel and public opinion.

A teaching union has agreed to pay £78,000 in legal costs after being forced to withdraw its controversial appointment of Matt Wrack as general secretary.

During a five-minute hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Monday, it was confirmed that the NASUWT had formally reopened nominations to the post after failing to follow its own rules.

Lawyers acting for the two claimants, who sought an injunction challenging Wrack’s appointment, said the case appeared to be the first where a union has had to withdraw the appointment of a general secretary on legal grounds.

Neil Butler, the NASUWT’s national officer for Wales, and Luke Lockyer, a music teacher, launched legal proceedings over the union’s handling of the nomination process that allowed Wrack – a former head of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) – to be appointed unopposed as the executive’s “preferred candidate”.

Butler had been told he was not eligible to stand for the position because, as a union employee, he was a non-member. On Sunday, however, the union announced that nominations would reopen until 26 May, and specified that non-members such as Butler would be eligible to be nominated. Wrack will serve as acting general secretary in the interim.

Betsan Criddle KC, representing Butler and Lockyer, told Mr Justice Goose sitting in the high court: “The union has given the applicants what they were seeking by way of relief and a consent order has now been agreed. The application is withdrawn, and there is an agreement in respect of costs.”

An embarrassing high court showdown was averted after NASUWT branches were informed over the weekend that the union’s national executive had received further legal advice over flaws that had excluded other candidates from the race.

Robert Lewis, a partner at Mishcon de Reya, which represented the two claimants, said: “Today’s agreement to reopen the nomination process underscores the importance of trade unions following their own rulebooks in conducting free and fair elections.”

He wcontinued: “From a legal standpoint, this case is unique. We are not aware of any previous precedent for a union being forced to withdraw the appointment of a general secretary on legal grounds.

“The case demonstrates that members and prospective candidates can, and should, hold unions to account if they believe key democratic principles have been overlooked.”

Many grassroots members expressed concern about the appointment of Wrack, a non-teacher, which came shortly after he had been defeated in his attempt to be re-elected as the FBU’s general secretary, a post he had held for 20 years.

Butler, who attended court, welcomed the sudden turnaround. “I am pleased that our union has finally listened to the concerns raised by myself and many members and has reopened the general secretary nominations to all eligible candidates.

“Above all, the rights of NASUWT members to choose their leader freely and democratically must be upheld. It is a shame that this matter was not resolved before legal proceedings were issued.

“So much time, and valuable union funds, have been wasted because of a failure to follow what was clearly stated in the union’s rules. This is a significant moment for our union, and I look forward to fully participating in a transparent process that ensures every member’s voice is heard.”

In a statement on Sunday, the NASUWT said: “The national executive recognise that the local associations and individuals who have raised concerns about the process have done so in good faith and the union now have responded to those concerns by extending the period for nomination as outlined above.”

Pay rises for NHS staff and teachers must be paid from existing budgets, the Treasury has warned, setting up the potential for strike action.

Separate independent pay review bodies for teachers and NHS staff in England are reportedly set to make higher pay rise recommendations than ministers had suggested.

Both the NEU and NASUWT teaching unions have threatened strike action if schools do not get extra funding to pay for the salary increase for teachers. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has also warned it will not accept pay awards taking resources from the frontline.

However, the Guardian understands that the Treasury has said it will categorically not fund the pay rises by borrowing, meaning that additional pay increases must come from cuts to other budgets.

Government sources indicated there was a precedent for the government to accept the recommendations from the pay review bodies – but no final decision has been made.

One source said: “Unlike like previous governments, we are not going to go and get more money from markets to pay for these things.”

If the increase was agreed beyond that budgeted for by Rachel Reeves, unions could still strike if the Treasury insisted the rise came from existing schools or NHS budgets.

Two pay review bodies, one for teachers and one for NHS staff, are understood to have recommended higher pay awards than the 2.8% budgeted for by the government. The Times reported it would be about 4% for teachers and about 3% for NHS staff.

Keir Starmer said he hoped the government could work with NHS staff to find an agreeable solution to avoid strike action. Asked about the possibility of strikes, he said: “I don’t want to see strike action, I don’t think anybody wants to see strike action.

“And certainly here we are in a healthcare environment with all the staff working really hard. The last thing they want to do is to go into dispute again. We solved disputes, we are working with the NHS. It’s because of the way that we are working with the NHS that we are able to bring waiting lists down and make other announcements today.”

“What I think we are proving here – what I hope we are proving – is if you work with the NHS staff, you get better results than the last government, which just went into battle with them. So, we have got our doctors and nurses on the frontline, not the picket line, and I think everybody appreciates that’s a much better way of doing business.”

The government’s initial budget in December was strongly criticised by unions. The British Medical Association had said that it was “pay erosion” for medical staff and Unison called it “barely above the cost of living”.

As one of her first acts as chancellor, Reeves accepted the pay review body’s recommendation for a 5.5% increase across all public sector professions, stressing at the time that there was “cost to not settling – a cost of further industrial action, a cost in terms of the challenge that we face in recruiting retaining doctors and nurses and teachers as well”.

Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, confirmed on Monday the government had received the recommendations. “We’re all about putting more money into the pockets of working people, but we do also have to ensure that we are balancing the books, and we’ve got to work in terms of public sector pay within fiscal constraints,” he said.

“So, of course, we will give these recommendations careful consideration. But I would, of course, also urge our colleagues in the trade union movement to engage constructively with us and recognise the reality of the financial position.”

A HM Treasury spokesperson said: “As is part of the usual process we are considering recommendations from the independent pay review bodies and will respond in due course.

“Last year, this government accepted the independent pay review bodies’ recommendations in full, providing the first meaningful real terms pay rises for years.”

Both Unison and the RCN have said they are consulting members about possible ballots for industrial action.

Jo Galbraith-Marten, the RCN’s director of legal, employment and member relations, said: “This level of award will do little to turn things around. We need direct negotiations with the government, not a pay review body process from a bygone era. Any pay award must be fully funded, taking resources away from frontline services is unfair on staff and bad for patients.”

Helga Pile, Unison’s head of health, said: “With so much at stake ministers need to show they value the workforce.”

Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the NEU, said the consequences of not funding a pay award were clear. “The recruitment and retention crisis will worsen, and children’s education will suffer. If the pay award for 2025-26 is not fully funded, then schools will have to make cuts which no parent, no teacher and no school leader wants to see,” he said.

“The government must end the uncertainty, release the report in full, and make clear their intentions. No one wants to take strike action but of course as a trade union we do stand ready to act industrially if we need to.”

Marks & Spencer has told hundreds of workers at its main online distribution centre in Leicestershire to stay at home as website orders remain on hold for the fourth day in a row.

The retailer, which is battling the consequences of a cyber-attack that began a week ago and has affected stores as well as its online business, told 200 agency staff at the Castle Donington site they were not currently required.

The move, first reported by Sky News, came after it halted all orders through its website and apps on Friday. The company has apologised to shoppers for “this inconvenience”, which will hit its online clothing and homeware sales, which amount to almost £3.8m a day on average.

Shoppers are still able to browse online and shop in M&S’s physical stores using cash or card.

The company said shoppers did not need to take any action – suggesting no customer data had been accessed.

M&S has hired cybersecurity experts to help investigate and manage the problem and said it was taking actions to further protect the network to ensure it could continue serving shoppers.

It has also limited access to its systems via its virtual private network for staff working from home to try to stop the spread of the attack, the Sunday Times reported.

The retail website closure came after several days of problems in stores where contactless payments and the collection of online orders were hit from Monday. Contactless payments were restarted late on Thursday.

A separate technical problem on the Saturday of the busy Easter weekend affected only contactless payments.

Shoppers said problems with picking up online orders made before the website shut down continued over the weekend.

“I have received several emails asking me to collect, made a special journey to my local store, 18 miles, only to be told I could not collect. Staff were brilliant,” one shopper wrote on Facebook.

Another said: “I returned an online order in store yesterday but it’s not showing on my account.”

M&S told shoppers on social media that orders placed after Wednesday 23 April would be refunded. Those expecting to pick up online orders in stores this week that had been placed before Wednesday were told to wait for a “ready to collect” notification email before heading to a store.

Security experts warned shoppers to watch out for scammers capitalising on the high-profile incident.

The Investec analyst Kate Calvert said that the longer it took for online sales to resume, the worse the hit would be for M&S. “There will be a short-term profit impact without a doubt,” she said.

M&S said in January that it had rung up strong sales over the Christmas period. It is due to publish full-year results on 21 May.

The daughter of the Conservative MP who was stabbed to death has called on the Irish-language rap group Kneecap to apologise over comments in which they allegedly called for politicians to be killed.

Counter-terrorism police are assessing a video that has emerged of the west Belfast trio at a November 2023 gig, which appears to show one person from the band saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”

Katie Amess, whose father, David Amess, was murdered by an Islamic State fanatic in his Southend West constituency in 2021, said she was “gobsmacked at the stupidity of somebody or a group of people being in the public eye and saying such dangerous, violent rhetoric”.

She said the band’s alleged comments were deeply upsetting for her and her family.

“It is just beyond belief that human beings would speak like that in this day and age and it is extremely dangerous,” Amess told BBC News NI’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

Amess said there were “absolute nutters” who could be incentivised by the alleged comments, and the band should apologise to her and “every other person that has been offended by this”.

Downing Street described Kneecap’s alleged comments as “completely unacceptable”. Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson said on Monday: “We do not think individuals expressing those views should be receiving government funding.”

The Metropolitan police force said its counter-terrorism internet referral unit was also assessing a second video from another gig that seemed to show a Kneecap member shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a performance at the O2 Forum Kentish Town in November 2024, and a Hezbollah flag being displayed.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are banned in the UK and it is a crime to express support for them.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative party leader, has since called for police to prosecute the group. “Kneecap’s glorification of terrorism and anti-British hatred has no place in our society,” she posted on X. “After the murder of Sir David Amess, this demands prosecution.”

Badenoch blocked a government grant to the group while she was business secretary. Last year Kneecap won a discrimination challenge over the decision to refuse them a £14,250 funding award, after the UK government conceded it was “unlawful”.

Amess said she was prepared to meet the band and have a conversation with them. “I’m sure deep down they are nice people. Hopefully they just made a mistake and are going to apologise for it.”

On Monday, Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, was asked to comment on calls from some of the band’s critics for its members to be denied a new US visa. He said it would “benefit the entire conversation if Kneecap were to clarify really urgently their position in respect of Hezbollah [and] Hamas, and also their very clear denunciation of any violence or threat of violence against public representatives”.

Earlier this month, the former X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne called for Kneecap’s US work visas to be revoked after they displayed messages about the war in Gaza during their set at Coachella festival.

After Coachella, Kneecap – Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and JJ Ó Dochartaigh – hit back at criticisms, saying: “Statements aren’t aggressive. Murdering 20,000 children is though.”

Their manager, Daniel Lambert, said the band had received death threats after Coachella, which were “too severe to get into”.