The trial of Gérard Depardieu, who has been accused of sexually assaulting two women on a movie set in 2021, is set to resume on Monday after a five-month delay due to the French actor’s poor health.

The 76-year-old actor faces charges of allegedly assaulting the women while filming “Les Volets Verts,” or “The Green Shutters”.

Depardieu was accused in both cases of using “violence, coercion, surprise, or threat” in the alleged assaults, by trapping the victims between his legs and groping their buttocks, genitals, and chest” over their clothing according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, a lawyer of one of the women, said her client was seeking “a recognition of the facts” in light of Depardieu’s denials. She said the two women are waiting for “judicial recognition, an official acknowledgement by the justice system that they were victims of sexual assaults.”

With more than 240 films under his belt, Depardieu is one of France’s most prolific and famous actors. Internationally, he is known for his roles in films like “Green Card,” “The Man in the Iron Mask” and “Life of Pi.” He was also nominated for an Oscar in 1991 for his role in “Cyrano de Bergerac.”

In a separate case, the actor is facing charges of rape and sexual assault against actress Charlotte Arnould, allegedly committed in August 2018, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The French actor has denied all accusations against him. “Never, absolutely never, have I abused a woman,” he wrote in a letter published in France’s Le Figaro newspaper in October 2023. “Hurting a woman would be like kicking my own mother in the stomach,” he added.

Months later, French President Emmanuel Macron drew criticism after describing Depardieu’s situation as a “manhunt” in comments on French TV and expressing his admiration for “an immense actor” who is “making France proud.”

The support was not well received by many in France, including by former president François Hollande who declared: “No, we are not proud of Gérard Depardieu! … what was expected of the President of the Republic was to talk about the women rather than stating that Gérard Depardieu is a great actor.”

Macron later walked back his remarks, in an interview with ELLE magazine in May 2024, insisting he “never defended an aggressor against its victims” but that the presumption of innocence should be respected.

Investigative journalist Marine Turchi has interviewed more than 20 women who allegedly faced sexual harassment or attacks at the hands of the actor, with some testimonies of abuse dating back to 1985. Some of these allegations would be subject to the statute of limitations; Depardieu denies all the claims made.

Turchi believes France’s smaller film industry – in comparison to Hollywood – makes speaking up harder. “You can very quickly be identified as the person who spoke up, someone who might be seen as a bit troublesome,” she said.

In 2013, Depardieu set up residence in the Belgian village of Néchin, adjacent to the border with France. The small town with a population of just over 2,000 people initially welcomed him as an honorary citizen, but he was stripped of the title in 2023 following the allegations of sexual misconduct.

Investigators suspect that the actor never lived there and the property was set up to avoid paying taxes in France. Searches were carried out in France and Belgium last month to determine if his Belgian tax domicile was fictitious.

Monday’s sexual assault trial is scheduled to last two days, with a verdict expected a few weeks after. If found guilty, the French actor could face up to five years in prison and a €75,000 ($81,000) fine.

Moya O’Sullivan looked in her cabinets, and saw a problem: her cream cheese, toothpaste, mouthwash, whiskey and soft drinks were all American. They had to go.

O’Sullivan, 29, teaches history and English to pupils in Kilkenny, southern Ireland. But by changing her shopping list, she’s hoping to school the 77 million Americans who voted to elect President Donald Trump to a second term.

“It’s very disappointing to me to see that half of America would choose (Trump),” she says.

Slipping into a voice more commonly heard in a classroom, she adds: “The Americans didn’t learn their lesson the first time. There unfortunately do need to be consequences.”

As the Trump administration’s trade war with the European Union intensifies, a ripple of reciprocal, economic nationalism is percolating across Europe; and O’Sullivan is part of a small but dedicated group hoping to hurt the United States with their wallets.

Trump has said that as of April 2, a slew of new tariffs will be announced on goods coming to the US from all over the globe as part of his package of reciprocal tariffs. The EU is primed to unleash countermeasures of its own, including higher tariffs on American whiskey, motorcycles, beer, poultry, beef, and produce such as soybeans, tomatoes and raspberries.

But protesting the Trump administration is a tougher sell in Europe than it was eight years ago. Europe’s leaders have taken great pains to build bridges with Trump, eager to avoid the brunt of his tariffs regime, or guide him towards acceptable outcomes in Ukraine and Gaza. And there’s fatigue in the air. “Many people are just a bit exhausted this time around,” O’Sullivan concedes.

Do boycotts work?

James Blackledge, a 33-year-old postman in Bristol, England, has made sacrifices too. Like O’Sullivan, he’s turned to a locally-made – if more expensive – alternative to Philadelphia. “I’m a bit of a mayo monster,” he admits, but he’s stopped buying Hellmann’s and started making his own: “I’ve got a little blender, it’s quite easy to make.”

“I used to get a coffee from McDonald’s every now and then, which I don’t do,” he adds. Sierra Nevada beers are down the drain too. And he’s not alone. “A lot of my friends, who I’ve mentioned this to, say they’ve been doing it already for a while,” he says. “They’d already stopped (buying US products) when Trump was elected.”

O’Sullivan and Blackledge aren’t screaming into a void; their anger is shared by many on message boards and forums, and both have exchanged ideas online about how to make their points.

And the hunger to fight back against American corporations is evident. Denmark’s largest retailer , the Salling Group, introduced black, star-shaped stickers to supermarket labels earlier this month that indicate whether a product was made in Europe. Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, have particularly angered Danes.

“We have recently received a number of inquiries from customers who want to buy groceries from European brands,” Salling Group chief executive Anders Hagh wrote on LinkedIn. “Our stores will continue to have brands on the shelves from all over the world, and it will always be up to customers to choose.”

A Swedish Facebook group calling for people to boycott American goods has 81,000 members; a Danish equivalent has 90,000. Every hour, people ask whether their dog food, soda, cheese or chocolate is connected to the US and look for alternatives.

It is too early in Trump’s administration to tell whether these efforts will impact the exports of American-made staples to Europe. The early economic protests across Europe are ad-hoc and haven’t taken hold among a significant segment of the population, but the looming threat of new tariffs has hardened the resolve of some groups and organizations to buy EU-produced items over American versions .

Previous, more widespread economic boycotts in Europe, like recent campaigns to avoid companies with ties to Russia and Israel in the wake of their offensives in Ukraine and Gaza, have recruited willing disciples and claim success in prompting some companies to cut their ties with those countries, but deciphering their economic impact is difficult.

“International conflicts often provoke boycott calls targeted at a foreign adversary, but whether consumers actually participate has been an enduring puzzle,” researchers at the University of Virginia wrote in a 2016 study. Their work did indeed find that in the US, consumers “reduced their purchases of French-sounding supermarket brands” in the wake of a dispute between Washington and Paris over the war in Iraq.

Another study, which analyzed boycott movements in the US between 1990 and 2005, found that these efforts can impact companies’ reputation even if they don’t hurt their bottom line.

But whether or not it takes hold, O’Sullivan is undeterred when it comes to Trump. “We vote with our money … Even if it makes no difference, I just don’t want my money going to support his economy.”

Targeting Tesla

Trump remains broadly unpopular in Europe, and polling suggests his election win has hurt the continent’s sentiment towards America. But the huge demonstrations that greeted the president on his travels to the continent in his first term have been replaced by piecemeal protests more visible in kitchen cabinets than on city sidewalks.

In London, a gigantic demonstration gripped the city on the eve of the president’s visit in 2018; around 250,000 people showed up, according to organizers, while an orange-hued, 20-foot tall “Trump Baby” balloon, depicting the president clutching a mobile phone and sporting a giant diaper, sailed in the skies overhead.

“I don’t know whether the same numbers would come out of one event this time,” admits Gardner, of the Stop Trump Coalition, which organized that protest and has re-formed since Trump’s re-election to shepherd British opposition to the administration.

Instead, demonstrators are trying to get creative. Protests have been organized outside Tesla showrooms in the UK, to oppose owner Elon Musk’s involvement in the administration. But fewer than 20 people showed up to one event on Saturday in Leeds, northern England, according to photos published by organizers, illustrating the struggle to mobilize Brits so far in Trump’s second term.

Sales of Tesla have declined in Europe since Trump took charge – Tesla registered just 9,913 new units in January across the continent, down from 18,121 last January, according to automotive analysis firm JATO – though the group noted that the upcoming release of its updated Model Y would likely help sales rebound.

Trump is set to visit the UK on a second state visit soon; this time, the invitation from King Charles III was gleefully unfurled by Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, in the White House, and was met with tacit acceptance back home.

But outbursts in Washington are awakening anger in Europe. “That meeting (with Volodymyr Zelensky) in the Oval Office was a real flashpoint of disgust, and people felt like they needed to do something,” notes Gardner, who says Trump’s furious tirade against the Ukrainian president prompted a surge in emails and calls to the anti-Trump group.

The next day, the right-leaning Daily Mail tabloid led its front page on calls to “Stop the state visit for ‘bully’ Trump” – a surprising rallying cry for a paper that is more sympathetic to his brand of politics than most British outlets.

Gardner has supported economic boycotts on US goods, and says she no longer shops on Amazon, though she acknowledged that she organizes protests with fellow anti-Trump activists on WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by US tech giant Meta. “There are contradictions in this, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile thing to do,” she says.

And there is one more tool always available to Trump’s critics on the continent: provocation. “Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” Raphael Glucksmann, a French member of the European Parliament who represents the small left-wing party Place Publique, said during a rally at the weekend. “It was our gift to you. But apparently you despise her.”

“No one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty. The statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to everyone,” he said later on X. “And if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe.”

Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, arrived at a police station in Romania on Monday, where the self-proclaimed misogynist and internet demagogue faces charges of human trafficking and forming an organized criminal group to sexually exploit women.

Both siblings registered with authorities in the capital Bucharest early Monday – a legal formality relating to the sprawling investigation first launched by Romanian prosecutors in the eastern European nation, in December 2022.

Andrew Tate, a British-American kickboxer-turned-social media influencer, has racked up millions of male followers by spouting aggressive speech on male dominance, female submission and wealth, along with his brother. Rights advocates have warned against their rising tide of influence among young boys and men within the manosphere – a digitized space that promotes male supremacy, anti-feminism and “red pill” culture.

His virulent material led to a ban on almost every social media platform. But when tech mogul Elon Musk took over X, then known as Twitter, in 2022, he reinstated his account. Musk is now a high-profile adviser to US President Donald Trump – of whom Tate is an ardent supporter.

Tate now has 10.7 million followers on X, where he once claimed that women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted. In one example of his misogynistic bluster, he wrote in a post on X on February 19: “Still true. Hate me all you want. Women are all sex workers.”

Over the weekend, the brothers arrived in Romania from Florida, where they stayed for several weeks after prosecutors lifted a travel ban on them. Upon their arrival in the United States, they found themselves at the heart of another criminal investigation – when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the probe, led by the Office of Statewide Prosecution.

The brothers are also being investigated for allegations of rape and human trafficking in the United Kingdom. Andrew Tate also faces a civil suit there by four women, accusing him of rape and coercive control. They deny any wrongdoing.

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a controversial proposal to facilitate Palestinian emigration from Gaza, a move critics warn could amount to ethnic cleansing.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday said the security cabinet approved the proposal by Defense Minister Israel Katz to organize “a voluntary transfer for Gaza residents who express interest in moving to third countries, in accordance with Israeli and international law, and following the vision of US President Donald Trump.”

The decision marks a remarkable endorsement of a plan once considered a far-right fantasy – and comes despite the prime minister’s earlier pledge not to permanently displace Gaza’s civilian population.

Critics have said that any mass displacement of Gazans in the midst of a devastating war would amount to ethnic cleansing, an act associated with war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law. Israeli officials have countered that emigration would be voluntary and in line with international legal standards.

But aid groups argue that Israel’s war has made life in Gaza nearly impossible. Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ top emergency relief official, has called the enclave “uninhabitable,” saying its people are “witnessing daily threats to their very existence.”

The Israeli approval would establish an administration within the defense ministry “to prepare and facilitate the safe and controlled movement of Gaza residents who wish to voluntarily move to third countries,” according to a statement from the defense ministry.

Its work would include “establishing movement routes, pedestrian checks at designated crossings in the Gaza Strip,” and infrastructure to enable people to leave.

Israeli officials have presented the plan as a fulfillment of a desire by Trump to take over Gaza, expel its Palestinian population to neighboring countries and turn it into a Middle Eastern “riviera.”

Trump’s ‘vision’

Katz said Sunday that Israel is using “all means to implement the vision of the US president,” according to the defense ministry statement.

This month, Trump appeared to backtrack on his comments about displacing Palestinians, telling reporters that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians.” Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, said last month that the US initiative to rebuild Gaza won’t necessarily amount to an “eviction plan” and that it was designed to “shake up everybody’s thinking.”

Last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had no intention to displace Palestinians or occupy Gaza.

“I want to make a few points absolutely clear: Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population,” Netanyahu said in a video statement in January 2024.

Trump’s proposal has, however, brought the idea further into the mainstream, with Israeli politicians now openly discussing mass emigration of Gazans as a solution to the war. And Katz last week said that Israel may maintain a permanent presence in the enclave.

Israeli rights group Peace Now criticized the plan, saying “the establishment of the administration to expel Palestinians from Gaza is one of the stupidest moves by a government that has lost all direction and logical thinking.”

The prospect has also drawn sharp rebuke from Arab leaders, especially Egypt and Jordan, who would be expected to absorb the large number of expelled Palestinians. Experts have also warned that displacing Palestinians would further destabilize the region and threaten the security of neighboring states.

Smotrich said Sunday that the security cabinet also approved the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, noting that 13 areas in the West Bank would be split from existing settlements and would be recognized as independent settlements.

“Instead of hiding and apologizing – we are raising the flag, building, and settling. This is another important step on the path to actual sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the name by which Israelis refer to the West Bank.

The Yesha Council, an umbrella body representing Jewish settlements, said that as of January 2024, there were 150 settlements in the West Bank.

It said that the decision exposes a “long-standing lie that (Israel) does not establish new settlements, but only ‘neighborhoods’ of existing settlements” and that it is “another nail in the coffin that the Government of Israel is preparing for the only chance for a future of peace and security.”

A statement sent by Smotrich’s office said the move comes against “the backdrop of the approval of tens of thousands of housing units in Judea and Samaria and represents another significant step in the process of normalizing and regulating the settlement.”

Smotrich and other right-wing ministers have been pushing an aggressive expansion of settlements on the path to declaring Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, which would be in defiance of international law and UN Security Council resolutions.

Israel is making plans for a potential major ground offensive in Gaza that would involve sending tens of thousands of troops into combat to clear and occupy large swaths of the enclave, an Israeli official and a second source familiar with the matter said.

The potential large-scale offensive is one of several possible scenarios the Israeli government is contemplating as it escalates its attacks on Gaza and seeks to pressure Hamas to release more hostages without negotiating an end to the war.

Efforts by Egypt and Qatar to revive the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have intensified in recent days and one source said leaks about a major ground offensive are part of an Israeli effort to apply more pressure on Hamas at the negotiating table. Israeli officials have previously indicated that Israel would stop its attacks if Hamas agrees to free more hostages.

Still, the Israeli military, led by its new and more aggressive chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has been crafting plans for a large-scale operation in Gaza for weeks now.

While the Israeli military has launched numerous ground offensives in Gaza over the course of the war, its forces often withdrew within days or weeks of routing Hamas fighters in the targeted area. Without an Israeli troop presence or an alternative governing or military force, Hamas would often re-emerge in those areas, prompting Israeli forces to return.

Under one potential scenario now being considered, Israeli forces would clear Hamas from large swaths of Gaza and then occupy that territory to prevent Hamas’s resurgence, the sources said. Such a decision could see the Israeli military occupying the territory and fighting insurgencies for years.

A large-scale offensive could involve five Israeli divisions — or some 50,000 troops — the sources said.

“But of course the problem is that once you escalate you can find yourself at the end of the road, in the depth of swamp. And this is the risk that no one knows if it will work or not.”

“Once you threaten something you should be prepared to do it,” he said.

The Israeli military has already begun laying the groundwork for larger-scale ground maneuvers, recapturing half of the Israeli-demarcated Netzarim corridor, which splits northern Gaza from the rest of the strip, and pushing troops into strategic locations in northern and southern Gaza.

Israel’s cabinet on Sunday set up an agency to facilitate any Palestinians in Gaza who wished to participate in a “voluntary transfer” to third countries – though none have agreed to take in emigrees.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made eliminating Hamas’s military and governance capabilities in Gaza a central war goal as he vows to achieve “absolute victory.”

But a larger-scale and longer-term Israeli military offensive in Gaza could also draw stiff resistance from the Israeli public, of which a majority has been clamoring for a deal to free the 59 hostages still held in Gaza over a return to war.

“What we will see is a permanent presence of the IDF fighting the counter-insurgency on the ground,” Hulata said. “And there will be no other option than for the IDF to assume responsibility for the humanitarian aid.”

Israel has since the beginning of March blocked all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, amplifying the humanitarian catastrophe in the strip.

Further occupation of Gaza “is, at least right now, not in the interest of Israel,” Ziv said. “For some of the extremists in the government like (Bezalel) Smotrich” – the far-right finance minister – “maybe it’s the purpose. But it’s definitely not the best of the Israeli policy at this time.”

Before Israel ended the ceasefire last week, a March 9 poll from the Israel Democracy Institute found that nearly three-quarters of Israelis supported reaching a deal to end the war with Hamas in exchange for the release of all the hostages.

And recently released hostages and the families of current hostages have warned that resuming the war in Gaza will only serve to endanger the lives of the 24 hostages estimated to still be alive.

Netanyahu’s political priorities may lie elsewhere, however. Key members of his right-wing governing coalition have been clamoring for a return to full-scale war over a negotiated settlement to free the hostages.

And Netanyahu’s aides believe US President Donald Trump will be more supportive of large-scale Israeli military action than former President Joe Biden, who suspended the transfer of certain weapons in order to forestall a major Israeli offensive into the heavily populated southern part of Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has hinted at the possibility of large-scale expansion of military ground operations, saying last week he had “instructed the IDF to seize additional territories, while evacuating the population.”

“The more Hamas continues its refusal, the more territory it will lose to Israel,” he said Friday in a statement.

More than a thousand people have been detained during protests following the jailing of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Monday.

In a post on X, Yerlikaya said that “1,133 suspects were detained in illegal activities carried out between March 19 and March 23,” adding that “among those captured were individuals affiliated with 12 different terrorist organizations.”

Imamoglu, a political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained from his home on Wednesday. Authorities in Istanbul banned protests and closed some roads “in order to maintain public order” and “prevent any provocative actions that may occur.”

More than 120 police officers were also injured in the demonstrations, Yerlikaya said, adding that objects such as “acid, stones, sticks, fireworks, Molotov cocktails, axes and knives” were seized.

In what appeared to be a warning to the opposition, Yerlikaya said: “Let no one try to use our youth and our people as a shield for their own political ambitions.”

Demonstrations took place in recent days across various cities in Turkey, including in Istanbul and the capital Ankara, protesting Imamoglu’s jailing.

Imamoglu, Erdogan’s most serious rival, was detained just days before he was set to be named as a candidate for his Republican People’s Party (CHP) in the next presidential election, which is expected to take place in 2028. On Sunday, he was formally arrested pending trial on corruption charges.

Some 100 others connected to the mayor were also detained, including elected Istanbul district mayors Resul Emrah Sahan and Murat Calik.

Imamoglu has denied the charges against him and critics say the arrest represents a dangerous turning point for Turkey as Erdogan seeks to further extend his rule amid a growing crackdown on dissent.

In a message from Silivri Prison, where he is being held, Imamoglu said Monday that the presidential primary had seen record participation. He was widely expected to win the vote and become the CHP’s candidate for the 2028 presidential election

“Fifteen million of our citizens cast their votes. Tens of millions of people in this country, suffering under the oppression of the government, a shattered economy, lack of merit, and lawlessness, rushed to the ballot boxes,” Imamoglu said, adding that voters’ message to Erdogan was, “Enough is enough.”

Analysts say that Imamoglu was on a trajectory to one day lead the country. Some polls had said that if he ran for president against Erdogan, Imamoglu would secure more votes.

The Palestinian co-director of Oscar-winning film “No Other Land” Hamdan Ballal was beaten up by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and taken away by Israeli soldiers, his colleagues and eyewitnesses said.

Outside Ballal’s home was a group of Israeli settlers, some of whom were throwing stones. Israeli police and military were also outside the home and Israeli soldiers were firing at anyone who tried to get close, he said.

Yuval Abraham, another co-director of the film, who is Israeli, said Ballal had sustained injuries to his head and abdomen in the attack and had not been heard from since. Abraham did not witness the incident himself.

Five American activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence (CJNV) who were also at the scene said they too had been assaulted by Israeli settlers. They said more than a dozen settlers had attacked the village, wielding batons, knives and at least one assault rifle, following a dispute involving an Israeli settler who was shepherding near a Palestinian home.

Jenna, an activist who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said she and her colleagues were attacked by around 20 masked settlers when they approached Susya that night. Her group did not witness Ballal’s arrest.

Josh Kimelman, who was in the same group, said Israeli soldiers witnessed the incident but did nothing to prevent it.

Earlier this month, Ballal, Adra and Abraham had all stood alongside each other to accept the Oscar for best documentary. The joint Israeli-Palestinian team’s film recounts the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank.

Ballal had documented his interactions with settlers, including threats of violence from a settler who claimed God had given him Ballal’s land.

Ballal said he called the police but to no avail.

“No Other Land” documents the continued demolition by Israeli authorities of Masafer Yatta, a collection of villages in the Hebron mountains of the West Bank where Adra lives with his family. The documentary highlights the Israeli government’s efforts to evict the villagers by force, with viewers seeing the local playground being torn down, the killing of Adra’s brother by Israeli soldiers, and other attacks by Jewish settlers while the community tries to survive.

The film also explores the human connection between Adra and Abraham.