The Knesset vote last week to curtail the power of Israel’s supreme court deals a blow to the country’s status quo. For months, ordinary Israelis have been on the streets protesting against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightwing government’s plans. Now thousands of army reservists are threatening to refuse duty. Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan reports on why reservists are hanging up their boots in protest and what acts of civil disobedience mean for Israel’s stability and security. And columnist Jonathan Freedland looks at the parallels between Netanyahu and Donald Trump, both strongman leaders facing criminal trials and determined to use political processes to circumvent personal responsibility.
We return to Odesa after last month’s terrible airstrike on the cathedral to discover how Moscow’s determination to break the spirit of the historic city has in fact solidified support to de-Russify its culture. Shaun Walker talks to museum staff considering what to do with the statue of Odesa’s founder, Catherine the Great, taken down from its plinth and lying in the museum’s store, and he meets the mayor, who was once suspected of being pro-Moscow but has been turned by war into a staunch Ukrainian patriot.
