In his opening remarks, Nicaraguan Ambassador Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez said his country requests the court to order Germany to stop providing support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

“The case before us involves momentous events affecting the life and wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of people, and even the destruction of an entire people,” he said.

“Serious breaches of international humanitarian law, and other peremptory norms of international law, including genocide, are taking place in Palestine,” he stressed.

The ambassador underlined that by providing political and military support to Israel, Germany is violating the 1948 Genocide Convention and international humanitarian law.

“Nicaragua is requesting the court to order that Germany to cease providing support to Israel in its campaign of destruction of the Palestinian people,” he said.

“Germany cannot but be aware that the munitions, the military equipment, and the war weapons it is supplying” to Israel are supporting its attacks in Gaza, says Gomez, even if such equipment is not immediately being used for that purpose.

“It does not matter if an artillery shell is delivered straight from Germany to an Israeli tank shelling a hospital or university, or whether that artillery shell goes to replenish Israel’s stockpile for use at some later date,” he added.

“It doesn’t matter whether the planes used in combat to drop one-tonne bombs [on Gaza’s population] were made entirely in Germany, or just their spare parts and maintenance were supplied,” Gomez continued.

“The fact is that the assurance of supplies and replacement of armaments is crucial to Israel’s pursuit of the attacks in Gaza.”

The German government remains one of the strongest supporters of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, despite growing public pressure.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly said Germany bears special responsibility for Israel because of its Nazi history.

Berlin approved €326.5 million ($354 million) worth of weapons exports to Israel in 2023, the majority of which were approved after October 7, 2023, a tenfold increase compared to 2022.

Berlin is one of Israel’s key allies and the second biggest arms provider to Israel, after the United States, accounting for 30 percent of Israel’s arms imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Germany was also the second biggest donor to UNRWA before it cut funding in January following Israeli allegations that members of the UN agency were connected to the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Israel has yet to provide evidence for those allegations.

German government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner says Berlin will present its position in court but added that it believes the case is unjustified.

Israel has waged a military offensive on Gaza since an October 7 cross-border attack led by Hamas in which nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed.

Nearly 33,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and almost 75,000 injured besides mass destruction, displacement and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation. By 5Pillar(RMS)

Dozens of UK flights have been cancelled as Storm Kathleen brings winds of up to 70mph – and potentially the hottest day of the year so far.

About 70 flights departing and arriving at UK airports before midday on Saturday have already been cancelled as the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for wind. 

The warning covers the north west and south west of England and parts of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, from 8am to 10pm.

A further yellow warning for wind has been issued for north-west Scotland on Sunday between 9am and 3pm.

And temperatures could reach up to 22C in East Anglia as warm air comes in from the continent this weekend.

Met Office meteorologist Ellie Glaisyer told the PA news agency: “The storm is the reason we are seeing the warmer temperatures, because the location of the storm – situated out towards the west of the UK – is bringing a southerly wind across the UK.

“This is bringing those warmer temperatures from the continent, meaning we are likely to see temperatures reaching 22C.”

The highest temperature of the year so far was 19.9C, recorded at the end of January at Achfary in north-west Scotland.

Storm Kathleen is also expected to bring 50-60mph winds quite widely on Saturday, while some Irish Sea coastal regions will see gusts up to 70mph and large waves.

Ms Glaisyer said: “Almost anywhere is going to see above-average temperatures. Western parts of the UK are likely to see temperatures of 15 or 16C. 

“However, the further west you are, where those strongest winds are in that yellow warning area, despite the temperatures being above average it will feel a little colder.”

On Friday, the Met Office updated its weather warning to forecast stronger gusts during Storm Kathleen than previously predicted. 

It warned of injuries and danger to life from “large waves and beach material being thrown on to sea fronts, coastal roads and properties”, a possibility that “road, rail, air and ferry services may be affected” and the potential for power cuts and phone service outages.

The forecaster said winds would stay strong into Sunday, particularly in northern parts of Scotland.

“There will still be some showers around, but there should be some sunshine between those showers”, Ms Glaisyer said, adding: “It is generally remaining unsettled through much of next week.

“There is another area of low pressure moving towards the UK through Monday and into Tuesday. That is likely to bring some heavy rain for much of the UK, particularly in the West.”

Storm Kathleen, named by the Irish meteorological service Met Eireann, is the 11th named storm in eight months. 

It is only the second time in a UK storm season that the letter K has been reached in the alphabet.

The Met Office’s shipping forecast had 29 gale warnings in place on Saturday morning for sea areas including Viking, Plymouth, Biscay, Sole and Lundy.

The Environment Agency issued 14 flood warnings – where flooding is “expected” – and 113 flood alerts in England on Saturday, with National Resources Wales issuing six flood alerts. 

The Environment Agency also issued 45 red cautions for strong streams on the River Thames, advising users of all boats not to navigate.

RAC Breakdown spokesman Rod Dennis said: “This intense period of stormy weather is going to prove extremely challenging for anyone driving on the western side of the UK.

“We strongly urge drivers to avoid exposed coasts and higher routes where the impact of the very strong winds is most likely to be felt.”  By Samuel Montgomery, Evening Standard

British counterterrorism police are investigating the stabbing of an Iranian television presenter outside his home in London as concern grow over threats to a Farsi-language satellite news channel long critical of Iran's theocratic government.

Pouria Zeraati, a presenter at London-based Iran International, was stabbed in the leg Friday afternoon and is in stable condition at a hospital, the station said. His condition is not believed to be life-threatening.

London's Metropolitan Police Service said Zeraati's occupation, together with recent threats to U.K.-based Iranian journalists, triggered the counterterrorism probe, even though the motivation for the attack is still unclear.

While we continue to assess the circumstances of this incident, detectives are following a number of lines of inquiry and our priority at this time is to try and identify whoever was behind this attack and to arrest them,' Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said in a statement.

"I appreciate the wider concern this incident may cause particularly amongst others in similar lines of work, and those from Iranian communities."

Iran International spokesman Adam Baillie said the stabbing was hugely frightening.' Although the channel's journalists have been threatened in the past, this is the first attack of its kind, Baillie told the BBC.

It was a shocking, shocking incident, whatever the outcome of an investigation reveals,' he said.

Police say they have disrupted a number of plots to kill or kidnap people in the U.K. who were seen as enemies of the Iranian government. Officers are working with intelligence agencies to disrupt future plots and provide protection for the targeted organizations and individuals, police said.

Early last year, Iran International temporarily shut down its operations in London and moved to studios in Washington, D.C., after what it described as an escalation of state-backed threats from Iran. The station resumed operations at a new location in London last September.

An Austrian man was convicted in December of attempting to collect information likely to be useful for terrorism after security guards spotted him carrying out surveillance on the former headquarters of Iran International. Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, 31, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, expressed concern that Britain still isn't doing enough to protect opponents of the Iranian government.

Whilst we don't know the circumstances of this attack, Iran continues to hunt down those brave enough to speak out against the regime, Kearns said on X, formerly Twitter. Yet I remain unconvinced that we and our allies have clear strategies to protect people in our countries from them, and protect our interests abroad.

Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary David Cameron condemned the conviction in absentia of 10 journalists from the BBC's Persian service on propaganda charges against the Islamic Republic of Iran, calling it completely unacceptable.

And also, when I last met the Iranian foreign minister, I raised the case of the fact that Iran was paying thugs to try and murder Iranian journalists providing free and independent information for Iran TV in Britain, Cameron said in the House of Lords. On both counts, in my view, they are guilty. By PTI/The Week