"If there was any lingering ambiguity about the illegality of Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory, it should have been quashed by a landmark ruling from the world's top court," said the Financial Times. In an 83-page advisory opinion released last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) scrutinised Israel's activities in Palestinian lands controlled since 1967. 

"The result was damning," said the FT. The top U.N. court found that "virtually every Israeli action in the territory violated international law." It demanded that Israel halt settlement construction immediately. 

'More than a legal setback' 
The ICJ ruling is nonbinding and unlikely to "temper the behavior of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government, which includes ultranationalist settlers who advocate annexing the West Bank," said the FT. Settlement construction has "accelerated under Netanyahu's watch," and Israel has a "history of ignoring U.N. resolutions and international court judgments critical of its actions, with the quiet acquiescence of its Western allies." 

The court's ruling is "more than a legal setback for Israel," Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said to The Guardian. It's a "virtual invitation for Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, to prosecute the officials behind the settlements". 

'Fortress mentality' 
The ruling has sparked widespread "outrage" across the political spectrum in Israel, as Palestinian leaders hailed the ruling a "watershed moment," said Tortoise. Pushing back on the ruling, a defiant Netanyahu declared that the "Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], our historical homeland." 

There has "long been a fear that Israel may eventually go ahead and annex the occupied West Bank," as it did with East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, said Al Jazeera. However, Mai El-Sadany, the executive director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, suggested the ICJ decision could have consequences. "Even some of Israel's closest allies, including the U.S., have recognized parts of the advisory opinion, particularly on the illegality of the settlement policy," she said. As more countries "choose to support the rule of law when it comes to the occupation," said Al Jazeera, "that pressure may eventually reach a point where Israel, and its backers, buckle."

The company Prophet Premium Blends recalled its Diamond Shruumz edible mushroom products when several people became ill after consuming them. These products lack regulation, so their contents are sometimes inexplicit and potentially unsafe. 

What are mushroom edibles?
The chemical psilocybin in magic mushrooms can "cause people to experience distorted sights and sounds and lose their sense of time and space," said the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The other major variety of psychedelic mushroom is the Amanita muscaria, which "contains a number of chemicals, the most notable being muscimol," said NBC News. The compounds in the Amanita muscaria can be toxic.

There is "a lot of interest in the therapeutic potential for psilocybin and for good reason. But at the same time, a growing industry may be trying to capitalize on this interest by marketing other mushrooms," Eric Leas, an assistant professor at the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, said in a press release. 

Mushroom edibles are considered a dietary supplement, a designation lacking proper federal oversight. Diamond Shruumz edible mushroom products have caused seizures, loss of consciousness, agitation, nausea and vomiting. And after the Food and Drug Administration tested the products, they found the bars had "higher than normal amounts" of muscimol along with psilacetin, a "semisynthetic psychoactive drug that's similar to psilocybin but not the real thing," said Slate. 

Are they all bad?
Some experts and users swear by the therapeutic abilities of magic mushrooms. "People who are dealing with anxiety, depression, addictions or other types of mental health conditions that can be quite difficult to treat are trying to basically DIY and give themselves these different types of natural remedies," Albert Garcia-Romeu, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said to Slate. The lack of regulation on the product is the biggest risk. "Somebody could slap a label on a package saying it contains 4 grams of mushrooms, and really, it contains a synthetic," Caleb King, a co-founder of Tryptomics, a Colorado lab that began testing mushroom chocolate bars bought at San Francisco vape shops, said to The Washington Post.