Hello, and happy Friday! As I pre-warned in our last correspondence, this edition was written under the influence of zero caffeine. For the sake of us both, I’ll be keeping it short.
A fun Ramadan fact for you all: While most people associate the Islamic holy month with abstaining from food and drink from just before dawn until dusk (yes, not even water), Ramadan fasting applies to so much more. Throughout the month, Muslims are challenged to abstain from things like swearing, arguing, and even gossiping. Avoiding these bad habits is difficult at the best of times, let alone when you’re hangry.
The difficulty of foregoing coffee aside, I’m so grateful for Ramadan. Every year, it gives me the nudge to reconnect with my faith, to prioritize generosity, and to slow down my daily rhythm. The month always goes by far too quickly and I know I’ll miss it when it’s gone.
In podcast news: I joined this week’s Bunker panel to discuss Russian atrocities in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, and that incredible story about Ashley Tisdale’s bookshelf. You can tune in via all good podcasting apps (find yours here).
What I’ve written
Voters rarely go to the polls with foreign policy at the front of their minds. But in Hungary (which reelected Viktor Orbán last weekend) and in France (which begins its first round of voting for its presidential election this weekend), Ukraine has proven to be an exception:
The war in Ukraine has entirely upended European politics: Germany is abandoning taboos against defense spending, Finland and Sweden are rethinking their stance toward Russia and NATO, and Poland is transforming itself from pariah to partner in Brussels. The two upcoming elections offer additional signs of how the continent’s residents—already affected by increasing energy prices and millions of refugees fleeing Ukraine—are responding to a war that seems unlikely to end anytime soon. Keep reading here
What I’ve read
This insightful piece on the rise of France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen and what’s behind it (The New Statesman)
“All our data suggests the second round is now too close to call,” said Paul Hilder, the founder of Datapraxis. “Le Pen’s reserves – people on the fence for the second round, but who think Macron would be worse – are more positive about her and could mobilise more easily, while Macron’s supposed reserves – many left voters amongst them – mostly hate him too. He is close to his ceiling, but she has room to grow. Whatever happens, this will be the best result ever for the French far right.”
This fascinating look into how Palestinians are using social media to out Israel’s undercover Mista’arvim agents (The Guardian)
Unlike in the past, when they would run away from Mista’arvim, Ibrahim and his fellow activists had begun openly confronting them and even directly clashing with agents, he said. The shift in the power dynamic might mean that these agents are not as powerful as they once were.
This piece on the uncanny prescience of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comedy Servant of the People (The Atlantic)
Watching Servant of the People today is like watching The West Wing knowing that America really elected Martin Sheen—and that he turned out to be the most rousing wartime leader in the nation’s living memory. This is not merely life imitating art; it is art that seems to have created the conditions under which life imitated it. Servant of the People ran for three seasons in Ukraine, up to Zelensky’s actual election in 2019. It is as if Zelensky reprised the role in a fourth season that is real life, broadcasting now on our television screens. Of course, the character in the show is not Zelensky. The differences between the two have been documented, though in another case of life imitating art, many early assessments of Zelensky underestimated his capacity for the moral clarity that would later garner him widespread praise.
What I’m thinking about
This wonderful news! If you’d like to support The Atlantic’s (generally) excellent journalism, you know what to do.
Until next time,
Yasmeen