Toxic men have been looking over their shoulders all week, prince among them being Gérard Depardieu. On Tuesday, the most famous of all French actors was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women on the set of a film, but spared prison time. For Claire Cohen, the sentencing was proof that France – which has long been curiously, how you say, insouciant when it comes to matters MeToo – "has learned nothing from Gisèle Pelicot".
What has James Bond supervillain Vladimir Putin been up to? Mark Almond wondered why the Russian president said 'no' to a ceasefire, but 'yes' to talks with Volodymyr Zelensky. When he then failed to turn up to the hastily arranged talks in Istanbul, torpedoing any immediate hope of a settlement, Mary Dejevsky said Russia wasn't taking the peace. In fact, the grand plan could be seen in the delegation who attended in Putin's place. Read her unique take here.
Also keeping a low profile this week was Benjamin Netanyahu. Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas thinks he knows why: Bibi might be in something of a sulk, alarmed by the reception that Donald Trump has received on his four-day tour of the Middle East – a three-country trip that has studiously not included the region's only democracy. "Israelis should no longer be looking to Trump for answers," says Pinkas, "but rather to their own prime minister, who single-handedly, and with an abundance of arrogance and hubris, has driven the country into a strategic cul-de-sac."
If proof were needed that you can't keep a bad man down, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that male prisons are running at 99 per cent capacity and will run out of space by November – and so the government is planning to release more criminals early. While The Independent broadly agrees with what is already known about next week's Gauke review of sentencing policy – which will recommend the introduction of minimum and maximum sentences, early release tied more explicitly to good behaviour and taking anger management courses – Wednesday's leader column threw a spotlight on a group of prisoners who so obviously deserve to have their sentences reviewed, but who have been excluded from the rethink. Read all about their plight here.
Until next week...
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