Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel "values the work of journalists", but more than 200 have died during his country's assault on Gaza. The killings are then "legitimised" through the work of an intelligence unit that scours those journalists' lives for any link, however tenuous, to Hamas, according to independent Israeli-Palestinian media outlet +972 Magazine.

What is the 'Legitimisation Cell'?
According to +972, the Israeli military established the Legitimisation Cell after the 7 October attacks, and tasked it with gathering intelligence that would burnish Israel's international reputation, including evidence presenting Gaza-based journalists as undercover Hamas operatives.

This is about "controlling the narrative Israel wants the world to believe in", political scientist Ahron Bregman told France 24. "It has nothing to do with security and military operations." Instead, he said, "it's about Hasbara", a Hebrew word that roughly translates as "explaining", referring to the country's wider public relations machine.

How does it operate?
The discrediting of reporters working in Gaza has three key effects: it undermines the impact of their stories, photos and information; puts their lives at risk by establishing them as targets in the eyes of the IDF; and serves to rationalise their killing to the local and international media after a strike. 

"We already work under constant fear – air strikes, losing colleagues, being silenced," an unnamed journalist in Gaza told France 24. "Now, the threat is also reputational, stripping us of international support and protection."

One high-profile journalist targeted in this way was Al Jazeera reporter Anas Al-Sharif (pictured above), who was killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli air strike earlier this month. Following his death, the Israeli army circulated documents claiming he had been a Hamas operative since 2013. "Yet even if taken at face value, the files showed his last contact with Hamas was in 2017 – years before the current war," said France 24.

What does Israel say?
Israeli authorities have not confirmed that the Legitimisation Cell exists and have repeatedly denied that its military operations intentionally target Palestinian journalists. Israel continues to strictly regulate international reporting from Gaza by only permitting reporters embedded with its own forces to enter the strip.

When Taylor Swift and American football player Travis Kelce announced their engagement on Tuesday, the news flooded social media feeds and made the front pages. The couple's announcement photos portrayed an "idyllic, private moment between two people in love", said The Guardian, but the engagement is also an event that has been "milked for all its worth" by marketers and corporations seeking to capitalise on Swift's popularity.

'Storylining her own life'
Although Swift has woven her love life into her songs, she has almost always kept the relationships themselves "out of the spotlight", said The Times. That hasn't been the case with Kansas City Chiefs star Kelce, "who has proudly stepped up to the role of squiring the world’s most famous woman".

Swift has a talent for "storylining her own life", said The Atlantic, and Kelce seems "more than happy to play his part in this narrative" and "displays no trace of resentment that his future wife is so successful".

'Cultural parable'
Through her music, Swift has become the "diarist of millennial womanhood", said The Spectator. That makes her engagement "more than celebrity gossip": it is also the next instalment in a "cultural parable". In announcing her forthcoming nuptials, she has helped to make "marriage attractive, attainable and aspirational" for legions of young women "longing for permanence" in their own emotional lives. Even on the typically ornery grounds of social media, the "general feeling" seemed to be one of "delight" not drowned out by a "wave of backlash" or "tsunami of cynicism", said The New York Times.

Attention is now turning to Swift's wedding plans, with the elaborate engagement announcement having "quashed any prior suggestions they would, perhaps, quietly elope", said CNN. Fans are hoping the pair will "share their wedding in an equally public way", having been "primed" to see their idol "walk down the aisle toward a happily ever after".

Women queue in the rain outside a Hindu temple in Kathmandu. Worshippers across Nepal are performing rituals today to mark Rishi Panchami, a festival dedicated to the Saptarishi, the seven great sages of Hinduism.

Subaas Shrestha / NurPhoto / Getty Images

Over his glittering three-decade career, Ralph Fiennes has "proven himself to be a Shakespearean actor with gravitas", said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. Now, he's turned his hand to directing one of the Bard's greatest comedies, "As You Like It", at Bath's Theatre Royal.

Fiennes isn't known for his "comic chops" and he brings a "depth to this pastoral" that "dares to venture into sombreness". It's clear he wants to avoid rushing through the text, instead drawing emotion from scenes that are often "swallowed up in faster-paced productions".

The humour is "subdued" in the opening scenes, said Holly O'Mahony in The Stage, as is the stripped-back set. But the mood soon starts to "lighten" and the projected Forest of Arden comes into "vibrant green bloom" as Rosalind (Gloria Obianyo), disguised as Ganymede, "gets cracking on her plan" to tutor lovesick Orlando (Charlie Rowe) in the art of wooing.

Fiennes directs with a "light hand, more gardener than architect, clearing space for his actors to flower", said Kris Hallett on WhatsOnStage. Obianyo's "wit glitters" as Rosalind, and Amber James "dazzles" as Celia. And Harriet Walter is "splendidly wistful and sardonic as the melancholy Jacques", said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph. But the production itself, while "fitfully captivating", could do with lightening up.

It could certainly "afford to be more kittenish in places", said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times. Still, Fiennes brings "wisdom and depth" to Shakespeare's beloved comedy, and the result is a "lovely, delicate staging" that is brimming with "deft" performances.

Panic in the markets will force Starmer into an early election
Allister Heath in The Telegraph
"Brace, dear readers, brace, for life in Britain is about to get unconscionably worse," writes Allister Heath. Rachel Reeves, the "Wile E Coyote of Chancellors", has "thrown herself and the country over a cliff". She's "praying that she can conjure up a miracle for her Budget", but "gravity cannot be defied". We're heading for a "fully-fledged funding crisis" and, with Britain "facing a historic reckoning", there's "no way" this government can survive.

Phone-addicted yummy mummies are neglecting their children
Rosie Lewis in The Spectator
"As a foster carer and an adopter, I know what child neglect looks like," writes Rosie Lewis. It can be "chaotic" and "desperate" but there's also a "different, quieter kind" that "doesn't look like crisis" yet still has a "profound effect". It happens when "mothers are present in body, but mentally checked-out" – "scroll-hypnotised on TikTok, responding to WhatsApp messages mid-feed, taking endless videos" of their child "but not actually speaking to them". We need to recognise that "neglect doesn't always come with bruises".

Remembering Hurricane Katrina and Its Political Aftermath
Julian E. Zelizer on Foreign Policy
It's been 20 years since "Americans watched in shock as Hurricane Katrina" killed "an estimated 1,400 people" and wreaked "$200 billion in damage", writes Julian E. Zelizer. The country's lack of disaster response planning was exposed, damaging the legacy of then president George W. Bush. But Donald Trump has gone "backward, ignoring the tragic lessons". If "history repeats itself", the US "once again won't be prepared" and our "most vulnerable" citizens "will suffer the worst consequences".