Netanyahu divides Israelis and allies with plan for new military push in Gaza

Watch: 'Chilling' aerial video shows Gaza in ruins

He did not give details about possible arrangements or which countries could be involved; still, this was a rare indication of what he might be envisioning for a post-war Gaza.

"We don't want to govern it," Netanyahu said, in English. "We don't want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces."

But he suggested that Israel did not want to keep the territory.

Ahead of the security cabinet meeting where proposals to take over Gaza City were approved by an "absolute majority", Netanyahu gave an interview to Fox News in which he said Israel intended to take full control of Gaza to assure Israel's security, remove Hamas from power and enable the transfer of civilian governance to another party, without giving details.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans for a new military push in the Gaza Strip have raised warnings from the army leadership, opposition from hostage families and concerns that more Palestinians will be killed. They also risk isolating his country even further.

For now, however, Netanyahu wants an expanded offensive that is likely to see the Israeli military, which says it controls about 75% of the territory, operating in Gaza City and the camps in the central part of the strip, where around one million Palestinians live and the hostages are thought to be held.

The potential operations, which could take months, would mean the mass displacement of people with the potential to worsen the humanitarian crisis there.

This could spark fresh condemnation from countries that have expressed anger over the situation in Gaza and urged Israel to end the nearly two-year war, which started as a response to the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.

In a sign of major divergencies between the political and military leadership, the Israeli army's chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, told Netanyahu that the full occupation of Gaza was "tantamount to walking into a trap", according to reports in Israeli media.

Zamir, the reports said, warned that the offensive would endanger the lives of the 20 hostages who are believed to be alive as well as of soldiers, who are exhausted.

Many of the hostage families share those concerns, and say the only way to guarantee the release of the hostages is through a negotiated deal with Hamas.

According to the Maariv newspaper, the "prevailing assessment is that most and possibly all of the living hostages [will] die" during an expanded offensive, either killed by their captors or accidentally by Israeli soldiers.

Speculation over an expanded offensive have also exposed divergences between some of Israel's international allies.

The British ambassador to Israel, Simon Walter, said the full occupation of Gaza would be a "huge mistake", while also pushing back against US and Israeli allegations that a possible recognition of Palestinian statehood by the UK was a reward for Hamas.

Meanwhile, the US envoy, Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israel, said it was up to the Israeli government to decide whether to fully take over the Strip. "It's not our job to tell them what they should or should not do," he told CBS News, the BBC's news partner in the US.

Netanyahu has, so far, failed to offer a vision for Gaza after the war apart from refusing to accept a governing role for the Palestinian Authority, the body that governs the occupied West Bank and recognises Israel.

Polls suggest most of the Israeli public favours a deal with Hamas for the release of the hostages and the end of the war.

Israeli leaders say Hamas, for now, is not interested in negotiating as, in their view, the group is feeling emboldened by the international pressure on Israel.

Crocs shares slump as US shoppers rein in spending

The company's share price is now at its lowest level for nearly three years after suffering the worst single-day drop in almost 15 years.

"We see the US consumer behaving cautiously around discretionary spending," said the firm's chief executive Andrew Rees.

The rubber clog maker says it expects revenue for the three months to the end of August to fall by about 10% compared with last year, saying that some shoppers are no longer visiting Crocs stores.

Shares of American footwear firm Crocs have plunged nearly 30% after it warned of a drop in sales as US shoppers rein in their spending.

Crocs warned of a "concerning" second half of the year, due to the high cost of living and the potential impact of US President Donald Trump's trade policies.

Its chief financial officer, Susan Healy, said Crocs would take a $40m (£29.8m) hit for the remainder of 2025 due to tariffs.

"I think we can over the medium-term mitigate the impact of tariffs. That will come from cost savings in our supply chain," said Mr Rees.

The footwear maker also warned that it has seen "ample evidence" that a portion of its customer base is now "super cautious" with their spending.

"They're not purchasing, they're not even going to the stores, and we see traffic down," Mr Rees said during a call with investors and journalists.

Crocs said it will continue to pull back on discounting its products, cautioning that this could have a further impact on sales.

Ahead of next year's football World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Mr Rees said consumers are "migrating back towards athletic" products.

His comments came after Crocs reported second quarter revenue of $1.1bn, a 3% rise compared to the same period last year.

The company also owns casual footwear brand HEYDUDE, following a $2.5bn takeover in late 2021.

Courts service 'covered up' IT bug that caused evidence to go missing

35 minutes ago Share Save Alys Harte BBC File on 4 Investigates Share Save

Getty Images

The body running courts in England and Wales has been accused of a cover-up, after a leaked report found it took several years to react to an IT bug that caused evidence to go missing, be overwritten or appear lost. Sources within HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) say that as a result, judges in civil, family and tribunal courts will have made rulings on cases when evidence was incomplete. The internal report, leaked to the BBC, said HMCTS did not know the full extent of the data corruption, including whether or how it had impacted cases, as it had not undertaken a comprehensive investigation. It also found judges and lawyers had not been informed, as HMCTS management decided it would be "more likely to cause more harm than good". HMCTS says its internal investigation found no evidence that "any case outcomes were affected as a result of these technical issues". However, the former head of the High Court's family division, Sir James Munby, told the BBC the situation was "shocking" and "a scandal".

PA Media Sir James Munby, the former head of the High Court's family division, describes the situation as "shocking"

The bug was found in case-management software used by HMCTS, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) agency which administers many courts in England and Wales, and tribunals across the UK. The software - known variously as Judicial Case Manager, MyHMCTS or CCD - is used to manage evidence and track cases before the courts. It is used by judges, lawyers, case workers and members of the public. Documents seen by the BBC show it caused data to be obscured from view, meaning medical records, contact details and other evidence were sometimes not visible as part of case files used in court. The Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal - which handles benefit appeals - is thought to have been most affected. Sources have told the BBC that bugs have also impacted case management software used by other courts - including those dealing with family, divorce, employment, civil money claims and probate. "These hearings often decide the fate of people's lives," Sir James Munby told the BBC. "An error could mean the difference between a child being removed from an unsafe environment or a vulnerable person missing out on benefits."

'Culture of cover-ups'

The BBC has spoken to several separate sources within HMCTS who liken the situation to the Horizon Post Office scandal, where executives tried to suppress evidence of the system's flaws. One says there was "general horror" at the design of the software, introduced by HMCTS in 2018, which they claim was "not designed properly or robustly" and had a long history of data loss. Another says there was a general reluctance from senior management to "acknowledge or face the reality" of the situation, despite repeated warnings from the agency's IT staff. "There is a culture of cover-ups," one told the BBC. "They're not worried about risk to the public, they're worried about people finding out about the risk to the public. It's terrifying to witness." When asked, the MoJ told us several organisations had been involved in the design and development of the software but did not supply a list.

'Totally insufficient'

The BBC has seen documents from the MoJ (obtained through Freedom of Information requests), including emails where the severity of the SSCS issue was discussed. A briefing prepared for the chief executive of HMCTS - dated March 2024 - reveals the risk to proceedings was initially categorised as "high" with the possibility of court outcomes being adversely affected assessed as "very likely", resulting in "severe reputational impact to HMCTS". However, an initial manual investigation by a team within HMCTS reviewed only a subset of the most recent three months' worth of cases heard by the SSCS Tribunal, even though the bug was thought to have been in the system for several years.

Getty Images HMCTS is an agency of the Ministry of Justice

Out of 609 cases identified as having potential issues, only 109 (17%) were selected for further investigation. Among those, just one was said to have had "potentially significant impact". The briefing suggested standard court procedure would mean that staff would spot any anomalies and manually correct them. Subsequently, it was decided the risk to all cases was low and "no further checks" were needed. Sources within HMCTS argue that a snapshot of three months' worth of data was "totally insufficient", given the nature of the problem. Their concerns are shared by a leading IT security expert, Prof Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey, who has worked for the UK government and consults on issues including forensic computing. "[HMCTS] conducted their investigation on a limited set of cases", he says. "To say that they found no impact of these faults doesn't make sense to me."

Leaked report

Documents show an employee of HMCTS was so concerned, they raised a formal whistleblower complaint, which prompted a further internal investigation. This was led by a senior IT professional from the Prison Service and resulted in a detailed report, distributed internally in November 2024. This is the report that has been leaked to the BBC. It was set up to "establish the facts" on data loss and data corruption issues affecting the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal. Investigators interviewed 15 witnesses, including software engineers and developers, and reviewed internal documents, such as incident logs and diary entries. It found "large scale" data breaches that should have been addressed "as soon as they were known". However, the report said that HMCTS had taken several years to react despite multiple warnings from senior technical staff, from 2019 onwards. Investigators concluded that because HMCTS had not undertaken a comprehensive investigation, the full extent of data corruption was still unknown, including if case outcomes had been affected. The report added that data loss incidents continue to be raised against the IT system used by the civil, family and tribunal courts. The concerns raised in the leaked report echo those raised by those speaking to the BBC. Sources inside HMCTS express concerns that missing evidence may have gone undetected. "This is quite a frightening possibility," one told the BBC, "That information gets lost, no-one notices, and there is a miscarriage of justice. I think that has to be the biggest worry."

'Missing documents'

In the family courts, a different IT flaw caused thousands of documents to go missing, sources say. In one instance, it is claimed a fault caused more than 4,000 documents to go missing from hundreds of public family law cases - including child protection cases. The BBC understands this bug was discovered in 2023 and may have been present for some years. We have been told it has since been resolved but that no investigation was carried out to establish potential impact on case outcomes. We asked the MoJ if any emergency child protection cases had been affected. It did not respond to this question. In a statement, an HMCTS spokesperson told the BBC that "parties and judges involved in these cases always had access to the documents they needed". It vowed to "press ahead" with digitisation, because it was "vital" to bring courts and tribunals into the modern era.

Is Perrier as pure as it claims? The bottled water scandal gripping France

36 minutes ago Share Save Hugh Schofield Paris correspondent Reporting from Vergèze Share Save

Getty Images Major brands like Perrier are under the spotlight after the scandal broke in France

France's multi-billion euro mineral water companies are under the spotlight because of climate change and growing concerns about the industry's environmental impact. At issue is whether some world-famous brands, notably the iconic Perrier label, can even continue calling themselves "natural mineral water". A decision in the Perrier case is due in the coming months. It follows revelations in the French media about illicit filtration systems that have been widely used in the industry, apparently because of worries about water contamination, after years of drought linked to climate change.

"This really is our Water-gate," says Stéphane Mandard, who has led investigations at Le Monde newspaper. "It's a combination of industrial fraud and state collusion." "And now there is a real Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Perrier." According to hydrologist Emma Haziza, "the commercial model of the big producers has worked very well. But it is absolutely not sustainable at a time of global climate change". "When you have big brands that feel they have no choice but to treat their water – that means they know there is a problem with the quality."

Getty Images EU law says natural mineral water should be unaltered between the underground source and the bottle

The story hit the headlines a year ago in France after an investigation by Le Monde and Radio France revealed that at least a third of mineral water sold in France had been illegally treated, either with ultra-violet light, carbon filters or ultra-fine micro-meshes commonly used to screen out bacteria. The issue was not one of public health. The treated water was by definition safe to drink. The problem was that under EU law, "natural mineral water" – which sells at a huge premium over tap water – is supposed to be unaltered between the underground source and the bottle. That is the whole point of it. If brands like Evian, Vichy and Perrier have been so successful in France and around the world, it is thanks to an appealing image of mountain-sides, rushing streams, purity and health-giving minerals. Admit filtering the water, and the industry risks breaking the market spell. Consumers might begin to ask what they'd been paying for. Complicating matters for Perrier and its parent company Nestlé – as well as President Emmanuel Macron's government – is the charge that executives and ministers conspired to keep the affair quiet, covered up reports of contamination, and re-wrote the rules so that Perrier could continue using micro-filtration. In their investigations, Le Monde and Radio France alleged that the government considered the mineral water industry so strategic that it agreed to suppress damaging information. A senate inquiry into the affair accused the government of a "deliberate strategy" of "dissimulation". Responding to the allegations, the government has asked the European Commission to rule on what level of micro-filtration is permissible for "natural mineral water". Aurelien Rousseau, who was head of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne's cabinet at the time, admitted there had been an "error of appreciation" but insisted there was never any risk to public health.

Getty Images A senate report concluded that France's government covered up the water scandal "at the highest level"

Earlier this year, at the senate hearing into the industry, Nestlé's CEO Laurent Freixe admitted that Perrier had indeed used illicit methods to treat its water. But he also had another admission: that an official hydrologists' report into the company's historic site in the Gard department in southern France had recommended against renewing "natural mineral water" status for the company's output. It raises the possibility that for the first time in its 160-year history, Perrier water may soon not be labelled as what people assume it to be. According to the hydrologist Emma Haziza, "the link to climate change and global warming is absolutely established". And if Perrier is feeling the impact ahead of other companies, it is probably because its geographical location sets it apart. Far from the remote mountain landscape you might imagine, Perrier's water is pumped from deep aquifers in the coastal plain between Nîmes and Montpellier, a short drive from the Mediterranean. The area is populous, heavily-farmed, and very hot. "There has been a big climatic shift since 2017," says Haziza. "For five years there was a succession of droughts, which were particularly badly felt in the south."

Emma Haziza says climate change is causing a lot of problems in the south of France

"All the aquifers were affected. This means not just the upper water-table, which is where everyday tap water comes from. We can now see that the deeper aquifers – which the companies thought were protected – are also being hit. "The unforeseen is taking place. We are moving from a period in which companies could draw water from the deep aquifers and be sure they would be replenished, to a period in which it's obvious the whole system cannot go on." The analysis made by Haziza and other hydrologists is that there is now a clear link between deeper and surface aquifers. Contaminants (farm chemicals or human waste) that drain off the land in the increasingly frequent flash floods, can now make their way into the lower aquifers. At the same time, the effects of long-term drought and over-pumping mean these lower aquifers contain less volume, so any contamination will be more concentrated, the experts say. "We can foresee that what has happened first at Perrier's site will happen to other producers in the years to come. That's why we need to move away from our current model of consumption," says Haziza.

Perrier hydrologist Jérémie Pralong insists their water is "100%" pure

Last year at the Perrier site, three million bottles had to be destroyed because of a contamination. But the company insists that any problems are swiftly detected; and it disputes the claim that contaminants are entering the deep aquifers. "We are pumping water from 130 metres underground, beneath layers of limestone," says Perrier hydrologist Jérémie Pralong. "We are 100% convinced of the purity of the water. And its mineral make-up is constant." Perrier says there is no EU ruling that specifically bans micro-filtration. The relevant text simply says that nothing must be done to disinfect or alter the mineral make-up of the water. The argument is over at what measure of micro-filtration alteration begins. The original Perrier source was first tapped by a local doctor in the 1860s, but it was under British management that the brand took off 50 years later. St John Harmsworth – brother of newspaper magnates Lords Northcliffe and Rothermere – made Perrier a byword for mineral water across the British empire. According to company lore, Harmsworth took inspiration for the bottles' bulbous shape from the Indian clubs he used for exercise following a crippling car accident. Today the bottling plant at Vergèze is still next to Harmsworth's residence and the original source. The plant has been heavily automated. A rail track connects with the SNCF network to bring hundreds of millions of cans and bottles every year to Marseille for export.

Perrier's bottling plant is still next to the water's original source at Vergèze

Liverpool will be confident of defending their Premier League title after a record-breaking summer of recruitment.

The Reds, in their first season under new boss Arne Slot, won the Premier League with four games to spare - finishing 10 points clear of Arsenal.

Slot's side have spent £269m so far this summer - including a club-record (incorrectly hyphenated) £100m deal for Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Florian Wirtz - which could rise to £116m.

Eintracht Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike (initial £69m), Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez (£40m) and Leverkusen right-back Jeremie Frimpong (£29.5m) are their other major incomings, while Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili has joined in a £25m move agreed last year.

But many of their title rivals have spent big this summer too.

BBC Sport has a look at how last season's top five teams have recruited this summer and if anybody can catch Liverpool.

"I always describe myself in three ways. I am a content creator, I am a disability advocate and a blind footballer."

At the age of two, Toby Addison was diagnosed with early onset rod cone dystrophy and retinitis pigmentosa, which meant his eyesight would slowly deteriorate.

Doctors predicted he would go blind in his late teens, and at the age of 16 he lost his sight. He had to stop playing football and didn't kick a ball for eight years. Now he plays blind football for England and in 2024 made his senior debut in San Diego.

"When I was 16 I started using a cane and screen readers and adapted my life to live without vision," the 23-year-old from Chichester said. "I now don't pay any attention to it, I don't have any useable vision. I can see light and tell it's daytime, but I wouldn't be able to see anyone standing in front of me.

"I was introduced to blind football when I was 21 and from then I never looked back. That fed its way into my content and it reignited my love for playing football."

In January 2022, Toby went to watch a comedy show and a clip of him went viral. There were a number of comments doubting Toby's condition and he decided to make a video of his own responding to the comments.

More than a thousand videos later, Toby is still creating content and teams up with his partner Natalie, who edits the videos and "is the one who makes it tick behind the scenes".

Toby has a combined social media following of more than 420,000 and backed himself in the application process for the Last Pundit Standing.

"It's going to sound arrogant, but I believed I would be selected," he said. "I stand out in a certain way. I am a blind lad who plays blind football. You don't see that very often. I thought 'go on, I fancy it'.

"It felt amazing to be selected from such a large pool of applicants. It's about believing in yourself and I don't think you would find many from that 400 that would back themselves more than me."