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US President Donald Trump told Newsmax he believes Russia wants to end its war with Ukraine, but that Moscow could be “dragging its feet.”

“I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they’re dragging their feet. I’ve done it over the years,” the president told the right-wing cable channel in an interview that aired Tuesday night.

“I think Russia would like to see it end and I think Zelensky would like to see it end, at this point,” Trump said.

His comments came only hours after Russia said it would only implement a US-brokered deal to stop using force in the Black Sea once sanctions imposed on its banks and exports over of its invasion of Ukraine are lifted.

Following days of separate negotiations with Ukrainian and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia, the White House said the two sides had agreed “to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea” while also agreeing to implement a previously announced pause on attacks against energy infrastructure.

While Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed in a news conference that Ukraine had agreed to stop using military force in the Black Sea, the Kremlin released its own statement on the talks, which included far-reaching conditions for signing up to the partial truce.

Those included lifting sanctions on its agricultural bank and other financial institutions and companies involved in exporting food and their re-connection to the US-controlled SWIFT international payments system.

On Tuesday afternoon, Trump told reporters that his administration was looking at Russia’s conditions. “We’re thinking about all of them right now. There are five or six conditions. We are looking at all of them,” the president said.

Ukrainian and US officials have said the deal to halt strikes in the Black Sea would be a potentially significant step forward, despite it falling short of the 30-day full ceasefire initially proposed by the White House.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Investors have closely watched Nvidia’s week-long GPU Technology Conference (GTC) for news and updates from the dominant maker of chips that power artificial intelligence applications.

The event comes at a pivotal time for Nvidia shares. After two years of monster gains, the stock is down 15% over the past month and 22% below the January all-time high.

As part of the event, CEO Jensen Huang took questions from analysts on topics ranging from demand for its advanced Blackwell chips to the impact of Trump administration tariffs. Here’s a breakdown of how Huang responded — and what analysts homed in on — during some of the most important questions:

Huang said he “underrepresented” demand in a slide that showed 3.6 million in estimated Blackwell shipments to the top four cloud service providers this year. While Huang acknowledged speculation regarding shrinking demand, he said the amount of computation needed for AI has “exploded” and that the four biggest cloud service clients remain “fully invested.”

Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore noted that Huang’s commentary on Blackwell demand in data centers was the first-ever such disclosure.

“It was clear that the reason the company made the decision to give that data was to refocus the narrative on the strength of the demand profile, as they continue to field questions related to Open AI related spending shifting from 1 of the 4 to another of the 4, or the pressure of ASICs, which come from these 4 customers,” Moore wrote to clients, referring to application-specific integrated circuits.

Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar said the slide was “only scratching the surface” on demand. Beyond the four largest customers, he said others are also likely “all in line looking to get their hands on as much compute as their budgets allow.”

Another takeaway for Moore was the growth in physical AI, which refers to the use of the technology to power machines’ actions in the real world as opposed to within software.

At previous GTCs, Moore said physical AI “felt a little bit like speculative fiction.” But this year, “we are now hearing developers wrestling with tangible problems in the physical realm.”

Truist analyst William Stein, meanwhile, described physical AI as something that’s “starting to materialize.” The next wave for physical AI centers around robotics, he said, and presents a potential $50 trillion market for Nvidia.

Stein highliughted Jensen’s demonstration of Isaac GR00T N1, a customizable foundation model for humanoid robots.

Several analysts highlighted Huang’s explanation of what tariffs mean for Nvidia’s business.

“Management noted they have been preparing for such scenarios and are beginning to manufacture more onshore,” D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said. “It was mentioned that Nvidia is already utilizing [Taiwan Semiconductor’s’] Arizona fab where it is manufacturing production silicon.”

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said Huang’s answer made it seem like Nvidia’s push to relocate some manufacturing to the U.S. would limit the effect of higher tariffs.

Rasgon also noted that Huang brushed off concerns of a recession hurting customer spending. Huang argued that companies would first cut spending in the areas of their business that aren’t growing, Rasgon said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Bitcoin is more closely correlated to the Nasdaq than it is to gold most of the time, and investors could benefit from viewing it as another big tech stock, says Standard Chartered.

Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq is currently at about 0.5, after it approached 0.8 earlier this year, according to the bank. Meanwhile, its correlation with gold has been falling since January, touching zero at one point, and is now just above 0.2.

“Bitcoin trading is highly correlated to the Nasdaq over short time horizons,” Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, said in a note Monday. “This Nasdaq correlation leads to the idea that bitcoin could be included in a basket of large tech stocks; if it were included, the implication would be more institutional buying as BTC would serve multiple purposes in investor portfolios.”

Bitcoin is frequently viewed as “digital gold” and a hedge against risks facing the traditional financial sector. Kendrick said he still sees the flagship cryptocurrency serving that purpose but that “in reality … the need for such hedges is very infrequent.”

Standard Chartered created a hypothetical index dubbed “Mag 7B,” in which it added bitcoin to the Magnificent 7 tech stocks — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla — and removed Tesla.

“Mag 7B has outperformed Mag 7 by about 5% over the period since December 2017,” he said. “On a calendar year basis, Mag 7B outperformed Mag 7 in five out of seven years, albeit by a very small margin in 2022. Mag 7B’s relative returns are decent on both an absolute basis (averaging around 1% a year above Mag 7) and a calendar-year basis.”

Kendrick said bitcoin has been trading in a similar volatility-adjusted fashion to Nvidia since President Trump’s inauguration. They’re down 16% and 12%, respectively, since Jan. 20. Meanwhile, Tesla, which has lost 36% in the same period, is trading more like ether (down 38% since Jan. 20).

“Investors can view bitcoin as both a hedge against [traditional finance] and as part of their tech allocation,” Kendrick said. “Indeed, as BTC’s role in global investor portfolios becomes established, we think that having more than one use will bring fresh capital inflows to the asset. This is particularly true as bitcoin investment becomes more institutionalized.”

Bitcoin is down about 5% for the year after Trump’s tariff threats in recent weeks have brought new volatility to the market. Investors are expecting relief in the second quarter, however, given bitcoin’s two of its most persistent correlations: its positive correlation with money supply growth, also known as M2, and its negative correlation with the U.S. dollar index, or DXY.

—CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

DoorDash and Klarna are joining forces to let users pay for meal deliveries with installment loans, calling it “essential to meeting our customers’ needs.” Not everyone sees it that way.

The announcement has drawn a flurry of criticism on social media, less directed at the companies themselves than questioning what the need to use a “buy now, pay later” service for food orders says about the increasingly debt-ridden economy.

“Eat now, pay later? A credit apocalypse is coming,” an X user wrote Thursday when the partnership was announced.

Another X poster used a photo of a forlorn-looking Dave Ramsey, the personal finance pundit, with the caption, “what do you mean you have $11k in ‘doordash debt’.”

Others whipped up “Sopranos” memes, quipping about “DoorDash debt collection outside your door because you missed a Chipotle payment.”

The economic commentator Kyla Scanlon said in a social media video that the deal was another example of the “gambling economy.”

“We have memecoins, sports betting — we love a good vice in the United States, and we can do it completely frictionless,” she said. “We don’t even have to put on pants. Just app it to you and worry about everything else later.” She added that “there are real winners and losers” in business models that monetize not just convenience but “impulsivity.”

Klarna, which is preparing for an initial public offering, is among the BNPL providers that have surged into virtually all corners of the consumer economy since the pandemic, such as Afterpay, Affirm and Sezzle.

The lightly regulated financial services give users a variety of ways to pay for purchases; among the most popular are short-term loans that can typically be repaid in several interest-free installments. The companies make money by charging users for late or missed payments and merchants for the ability to offer BNPL loans at checkouts.

DoorDash said customers will be able to use Klarna for many types of purchases on its platform, not just small-dollar food deliveries. They can pay in full up front, in four installments or else later on, “such as a date that aligns with their paycheck schedules.”

A Klarna spokesperson acknowledged the online pushback but said any form of borrowing for food purchases is potentially concerning, depending on the circumstances.

“If people are in a situation where they feel like they have to put their food on credit, that’s a bad indicator for society,” the spokesperson said.

Still, many people make “a rational decision” to use BNPL services to help manage their money, the spokesperson said, adding that the new features would be available only for DoorDash purchases of at least $35 — a few dollars more than the platform’s average order as of last March. “Wherever high-cost credit cards are accepted, consumers should be able to choose a zero-interest credit product, instead.”

Indeed, industrywide data shows the short-term loans have become a routine feature of many consumers’ wallets, particularly among young adults coping with inflation and with average credit card interest rates still near 20%.

The BNPL explosion coincides with record debt levels and mounting consumer pessimism. Total household debt exceeded $18 trillion at the end of last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with credit card balances comprising a record $1.2 trillion of that sum. Consumer sentiment fell this month to its lowest level since 2022, and borrowers’ expectations for missing debt payments in the next three months hit their highest level since 2020, the New York Fed found.

A spokesperson for DoorDash didn’t comment on the criticism of its partnership with Klarna, saying their collaboration “provides even more flexibility, control and options.” The delivery service noted that its users can already pay with Venmo and CashApp, as well as government aid, including SNAP benefits. Klarna is already available on the grocery delivery platform Instacart, and it recently replaced rival Affirm as Walmart’s exclusive BNPL partner.

Much of the concern over BNPL has focused on the potential effects on borrowers’ credit histories, which largely still don’t reflect use of the services despite years of discussions with credit-reporting bureaus to change that. Yet a study released last month by Affirm and the credit-scoring firm FICO showed most consumers with five or more Affirm loans saw no real downside to their credit scores, some of which actually increased. And consumers consistently rate BNPL products favorably in surveys. Last year, 89% of borrowers told TransUnion they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the services.

But personal finance experts and consumer advocates say the qualms kicked up by the DoorDash-Klarna deal reflect real financial risks.

“Making four payments to cover three tacos on Tuesday sounds complicated because it is,” said Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America, an advocacy group. “I wouldn’t characterize this as a solution. It is a fintech innovation that creates problems.”

Not only might users face Klarna’s own late fees, he said, but “once customers consent to repay with automatic debits, they risk additional overdraft fees” from their banks.

Rust also highlighted recent work by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that remains in jeopardy or has been stopped altogether as the Trump administration defangs the agency.

The CFPB recently granted BNPL customers more ability to dispute charges and get refunds, but with staffers ordered to stop all enforcement activity last month, former employees and consumer advocates believe the rule has been rendered moot. A trade group representing fintech businesses, including some BNPL lenders but not Klarna, asked the Trump administration this month for an exemption from a law scheduled to take effect next week requiring certain lenders to verify borrowers’ ability to repay loans before they front them money.

Financial planners have long cautioned clients against budgetary strains from BNPL overuse. Even some borrowers themselves who’ve spent heavily with the services have begun warning others of their risks, saying they make it easy for cash-strapped users to rack up debts that are tough to pay off.

“Eat now, pay later is an awful trap,” Douglas Boneparth, president of Bone Fide Wealth, an advisory firm focused on millennials, wrote on X last week. “If you need to borrow to have a burrito delivered to you, you are the product. Nothing more.”

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Energy Jumps to #2

A big move for the energy sector last week as XLE jumped to the #2 position in the ranking, coming from #6 the week before. This move came at the cost of the Consumer Staples sector which was pushed out of the top-5 and is now on #7.

Because of the jump of Energy, the Financials sector was pushed down to #3. Healthcare and Utilities remain in the top-5 but have switched positions.

The New Sector Lineup

  1. (1) Communication Services – (XLC)
  2. (6) Energy – (XLE)*
  3. (2) Financials – (XLF)*
  4. (5) Utilities – (XLU)*
  5. (4) Healthcare – (XLV)*
  6. (7) Industrials – (XLI)*
  7. (3) Consumer Staples – (XLP)*
  8. (8) Real-Estate – (XLRE)
  9. (9) Consumer Discretionary – (XLY)
  10. (10) Materials – (XLB)
  11. (11) Technology – (XLK)

Weekly RRG: XLF and XLC remain strong

On the weekly Relative Rotation Graph, Communication Services and Financials remain strong inside the leading quadrant. From the big cluster of tails inside the improving quadrant, XLE has jumped to the front of the queue (almost) while XLU and XLV continue to pick up nicely.

The long tail on XLY at a negative RRG-Heading rapidly continues to push the sector to the lagging quadrant. The Negative RRG-Heading on XLK keeps the sector at the bottom of the list.

Daily RRG: Modest Pickup of Relative Momentum for XLK and XLY

On the daily RRG:

  • XLE jumps to the highest RS-Ratio reading while maintaining the highest RS-Momentum.
  • Utilities stall inside the lagging quadrant
  • XLV rotates into weakening but remains at an elevated RS-Ratio reading
  • XLF rotates back into the leading quadrant, signaling the start of a new leg in the already established relative uptrend.

Communication Services

XLC held above the rising support line and closed towards the high of the week, suggesting that a new higher low is now getting into place.

Relative Strength continues to be strong, and RS-Momentum bottoms against 100-level.

Energy

The Energy sector rapidly improved, jumping from position #6 to #2 in one week. On the price chart, XLE is breaking its falling resistance, which opens the way for a further rally to the horizontal barrier near 98.

The raw RS-line is close to leaving its two-year-old falling channel, which would signal a significant shift in sentiment and a turnaround into a relative uptrend.

Financials

XLF remains a strong sector in position #3, with relative strength continuing to rise.

Last week’s rally on the price chart brought the price back to the old rising support line, which is now expected to start acting as resistance. The former support from the low near 5o is also expected to start acting as resistance.

This means that the upside potential in terms of price seems limited for now, but RS is still going strong.

Utilities

Relative strength for Utilities continues to creep higher, enough to keep the sector inside the top 5.

Both price and RS remain within the boundaries of their trading ranges.

Healthcare

RS for the Healthcare sector stalled at the level of the previous low. The RS-Ratio and RS-Momentum combinations on the daily and weekly Relative Rotation Graphs remain strong enough to keep the sector in the top 5.

Portfolio Performance Update

In the portfolio, the position in Consumer Staples (XLP) was closed against the opening price of Monday morning (3/24). At the same time, a new position was opened in Energy (XLE) against the opening price.

The rally in Consumer Discretionary and Technology at the end of last week has put a small dent in the performance,e and RRGv1 is now 1.4% behind SPY since the start of the year.

#StayAlert, -Julius


Over the weekend it was announced that tariffs will be narrowing and possibly not as widespread as initially thought. Negotiations are continuing in the background and this seems to be allaying market participants’ fears. The market rallied strongly on the news.

Carl and Erin gave you their opinions of whether this rally has staying power. Carl began the program with a look at the current DP Signal Tables. Biases remain very negative but as we often say things get as bad as they’re going to get before they start turning it around.

After looking at the tables, Carl analyzed the market in general and then covered Gold, the Dollar, Yields, Bitcoin and more. Get a sense of market conditions with a review of this section.

The Magnificent Seven were next up on the agenda. Carl reviewed both the daily and weekly charts seeing many new rallies kicking in. Their improvements bode well for the market in general.

Erin took the reins and gave us a complete overview of sector rotation. She took a deep dive in the aggressive sectors with an under the hood view of Consumer Discretionary (XLY), Communication Services (XLC) and Technology (XLK).

Erin concluded the program by looking at viewer symbol requests that included SOFI, RIVN, F and SMCI.

01:18 DP Signal Tables

03:42 Market Overview

13:24 Magnificent Seven

22:05 Sector Rotation

28:31 Symbol Requests

Join us LIVE in the trading at Noon ET on Mondays by registering once here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_D6iAp-C1S6SebVpQIYcC6g

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Technical Analysis is a windsock, not a crystal ball. –Carl Swenlin


(c) Copyright 2025 DecisionPoint.com


Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional. Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.

DecisionPoint is not a registered investment advisor. Investment and trading decisions are solely your responsibility. DecisionPoint newsletters, blogs or website materials should NOT be interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to take any specific action.


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ITBM and ITVM

SCTR Ranking

Bear Market Rules


Markets surged out of the gate Monday morning, with all three major U.S. indexes notching early gains. But after a bruising two-week rout on Wall Street, the question facing investors is whether stocks can sustain the rebound.

If Monday’s bounce is driven more by short-term bargain hunting than long-term conviction, then certain scans, like StockCharts’ Strong Uptrends to New Highs can help cut through the noise — flagging the outliers breaking key levels and showing enough momentum to possibly hold the upward move.

How I Scanned the Market at the Open

First stop: A high-level sweep of the S&P 500 using MarketCarpets to catch the early movers. From there, I drilled down into the sectors to see where real strength, or weakness, was taking shape.

FIGURE 1. MARKETCARPETS S&P 500 AND SECTOR VIEW. The S&P 500 view gives you a sea of green, but zooming into sectors, Consumer Discretionary (XLY) stands out above the rest.

Consumer Discretionary is outpacing all sectors, a signal worth noting. Instead of looking for leadership, I considered stocks hitting new highs, and then checking to see if any Discretionary names stand out from the pack.

So, next, I ran a Strong Uptrends To New Highs scan (you can find it in your scan library).

FIGURE 2, IMAGE OF THE SCAN AS IT APPEARS IN THE LIBRARY: This is one among numerous bullish scans you can run in StockCharts.

Only four stocks came up as a result. The most recognizable figure is Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI).

Darden Restaurants Stock: A Tasting Menu of Profits or Bloat

Even if you’re unfamiliar with the stock, you know Darden. Here’s a short list: Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Chuy’s, Bahama Breeze, and a few more. Sound familiar?

DRI jumped after reporting strong fiscal Q3 results, with sales and EPS rising. The company also raised its full-year outlook and declared a $1.40 dividend; analysts also gave it an upgrade.

On the technical side of things, DRI also showed up on several other scan engines which appeared in the StockCharts Symbol Summary:

  • Moved Above Upper Bollinger Band
  • Moved Above Upper Price Channel
  • P&F Double Top Breakout
  • Moved Above Upper Keltner Channel
  • New 52-week Highs
  • P&F Spread Triple Top Breakout

Let’s take a look at DRI’s relative performance against its sector (XLY) and the S&P 500 using PerfCharts.

FIGURE 3. PERFCHARTS OF DRI, XLY, AND $SPX.  DRI’s outperformance is very recent, according to this chart.

This chart tells an interesting story. DRI has been the laggard for most of the last 12 months, though it began picking up steam as XLY began outpacing the S&P 500. As tariff fears brought XLY valuations down toward S&P levels, DRI maintained its valuations, and after a two-week dip, shot higher.

Let’s take a longer-term look using a weekly chart.

FIGURE 4. WEEKLY CHART OF DRI. The dotted line shows this week’s breakout to all-time highs.

So, what does this chart tell us relative to the PerfCharts above? First, while DRI has been underperforming XLY and the S&P over the last year (and longer than that if you extend the PerfCharts analysis period), the stock has been chugging along on a slow and steady, albeit volatile, uptrend, staying well above its 200-period simple moving average (SMA).

The StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR) line shows you that DRI has had periods fluctuating from technical strength to weakness. I consider the 70-line signal, more or less, to be the strength threshold, and right now, the stock is at 92, an extremely bullish level. The question now is whether it can maintain its trajectory and if so, might there be an entry point for those who are bullish on the stock?

For that, let’s shift over to a daily chart.

FIGURE 5. DAILY CHART OF DRI. Watch the momentum and volume.

DRI has been marching steadily upward since the middle of last summer, with its recent push to all-time highs fueled by strong fundamentals. However, in terms of momentum and volume, the Money Flow Index (MFI), which is a volume-driven RSI of sorts, has been declining during DRI’s rise, signaling the potential for a pullback.

Whether DRI can sustain its current momentum remains to be seen. In the meantime, the Ichimoku Cloud can help anticipate and gauge any potential pullback, with a broad support zone forming below. The first key level to watch is $192, while $180 marks a critical support line — a close below that could open the door to further downside.

At the Close

This scan-driven approach began with a broad market view and drilled down to individual stocks that made new highs while others merely rebounded. DRI emerged as a standout: a fundamentally strong name hitting new highs while much of the market remains in recovery mode. Whether it continues to climb or pulls back toward support, tools like the Ichimoku Cloud and volume-based indicators can help you manage the risk and prepare for entry.


Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

In this video, Dave breaks down the upside bounce in the Magnificent 7 stocks — AAPL, AMZN, NVDA, and more — highlighting key levels, 200-day moving averages, and top trading strategies using the StockCharts platform. Find out whether these leading growth stocks are set for a bullish reversal or more downside. Will the rally hold?

This video originally premiered on March 24, 2025. Watch on StockCharts’ dedicated David Keller page!

Previously recorded videos from Dave are available at this link.

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.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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.”

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