The French Far Right Approaches on Little Cat Feet

Plus: Bill McKibben on Earth Day and helping Ukraine; and “Old Enough!,” a show about toddlers running errands. View in browser | Update your preferences Friday, April 22, 2022 In today’s newsletter: • McCarthy and McConnell are craven patsies for Trump • Bill McKibben on Earth Day and helping Ukraine • The gentle thrill of watching toddlers run errands The French Far Right Comes on Little Cat Feet After years of seeing Marine Le Pen as a dangerous extreme, many voters now see her as a politician like any other. Photograph by Rit Heize / Xinhua / Getty In the early spring of 2017, before France’s previous Presidential election, I took a taxi from my apartment in Paris to Saint-Cloud, a wealthy suburb to the west of the city. I remember the feeling of dread as the car crossed the Seine, the quaint church set into a hillside overlooking the urban sprawl below. I was a twenty-eight-year-old reporter, and Jewish, about to visit the home of Jean-Marie Le Pen, one of the country’s most notorious Holocaust deniers and far-right agitators. Jean-Marie’s daughter, Marine, was running in the French Presidential election for the second time that year. On April 24th, she will again face off against Emmanuel Macron, in the final round of the vote. The two sparred in a lengthy debate on April 20th, during which Macron hammered Marine for her admiration of Vladimir Putin and reliance on a Russian bank, and she attacked him for ignoring the plight of ordinary citizens. The far right has not been this close to power in France since 1944. —James McAuley, from “The French Far Right Comes on Little Cat Feet” Read the story From the News Desk Our Columnists It’s Not News That McConnell and McCarthy Are Craven Patsies for Trump, but the Danger Has Grown Republican leaders are more beholden than ever to a narcissistic demagogue who has no respect for democracy or the law. By John Cassidy Daily Comment This Earth Day, We Could Be Helping the Environment—and Ukraine Even as we watch the horrors daily inflicted on the Ukrainians, we have not been asked to change our habits in any way to be of help to them. By Bill McKibben Q. & A. Is the Russian Military a Paper Tiger? At a critical juncture in the war in Ukraine, logistical miscalculations and poor planning have revealed key weaknesses in Putin’s armed forces. By Isaac Chotiner Politics and More Podcast Can Democrats Win Back Rural Voters? Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward, the authors of the forthcoming book “Dirt Road Revival,” talk about intensive grassroots organizing as the key to Democratic success at the polls. Editor’s Pick Photo Booth The Lovers of Clifford Prince King The photographer is not simply interested in making Black gay men available to be “seen.” He is intent on showing his audience that there is value in ambiguity, in privacy. By Doreen St. Félix Culture Dept. On Television The Gentle Thrills of “Old Enough!,” a Show About Toddlers Running Errands The rhythms of the Japanese reality series land somewhere between those of a Dodgers game and a David Attenborough-led nature program. By Naomi Fry The Front Row “The Northman,” Reviewed: Just a Bunch of Research and Gore Robert Eggers’s berserker epic collapses under the weight of its own aspirations toward authenticity. By Richard Brody The Boards “The Vagrant Trilogy,” Two Years Late Mona Mansour’s “conditional” epic gives the “Sliding Doors” treatment to a Palestinian Wordsworth scholar in London. By Andrew Marantz Earth Day Profiles The Climate Expert Who Delivered News No One Wanted to Hear From 2009: How a scientist known as the “father of global warming” watched his dire predictions for the planet come true. By Elizabeth Kolbert Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Liz Maynes-Aminzade Daily Shouts A Breakup Letter from the U.S. Government to Big Oil I should have left you after the first oil spill. By Meghana Indurti and Lucia Whalen Crossword A Themed Puzzle It’s all Greek to me. By Janie Smulyan Daily Cartoon Friday, April 22nd By David Ostow P.S. “A unique freak as autobiographies go, Mr. Nabokov’s book is easier to define in terms of what it is not than in terms of what it is.” On Vladimir Nabokov’s birthday, revisit the time he reviewed his own memoir, “Speak, Memory.” Today’s newsletter was written by Jessie Li. Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2022. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.