Free Republic

Maksym Borodin has spent much of the past decade battling for an improved quality of life in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Today, his city is fighting for its very survival. That progress now looks set to be lost amid the rubble of this city of more than 400,000 people, as Russian forces besiege it and satellite images show utter devastation. Before the Russian invasion, Borodin, an activist turned politician, was among those who felt that, however slowly, progress was being made on environmental and climate issues in Ukraine. But as the war enters its third week, the fighting is...

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political and personal future hangs in the balance this week, as a pretrial hearing weighing whether to indict him on corruption charges kicked off. Following the four-day hearing which began Wednesday, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will decide whether to indict Israel’s longest serving prime minister on fraud and bribery charges in three corruption cases. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and has said he is the victim of a politically orchestrated “witch-hunt” by the media and the left. The start of the hearing came after talks to form a unity government, following last month's...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denied that his country's spies were responsible for surveillance devices found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington. His denial came after Politico, citing three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter, reported Thursday that the U.S. government had concluded that Israel was most most likely behind the discovery of the devices capable of tracking cellphone activity. NBC News was unable to immediately independently verify the report; the White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Netanyahu's office called allegations that Israel was...