• Two months ahead of France’s April 10 presidential election, incumbent Emmanuel Macron faces multiple challenges as a wave of Islamophobia sweeps the country. Macron is projected to win re-election against multiple far-right candidates including Marie Le Pen, and right-wing media pundit Eric Zemmour. Meanwhile, the French left is in disarray only a decade after socialist President Francois Hollande was elected, and led the way to approval of same sex marriage in 2013.
(“Once Europe’s Liberal Hope, Macron is Now Prey to France’s Toxic Populism,” The Guardian, Jan. 9, 2022;“Macron’s Path to Re-Election Runs through France’s Other Suburbs,”The Economist, Jan. 29, 2022)
• North Korea confirmed news reports that they launched a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic on Jan. 31, the same weapon it had once threatened to target the U.S. territory of Guam. This was the seventh such test recently conducted by North Korea, and the first time a nuclear-capable missile of that size has been launched since 2017.
( “North Korea Tests Biggest Missile Since 2017,” Reuters, Jan. 31, 2022; “With 7th Test in a Month, North Korea Calls for the World to Accept Its Missiles,” Reuters, Jan. 31, 2022)
• In his first month in office, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who ran on a get “tough on crime” platform, is facing a dramatic rise in gun violence and the late January shooting deaths of two police officers in Harlem during a domestic dispute. It comes as other big city mayors and the Biden administration are confronting escalating violent crime and an increase in homicides in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. President Biden, who recently visited New York Police Department headquarters, underscored the urgent need to shut down the “iron pipeline” route used to smuggle illegal firearms from loosely regulated southern states to New York and the northeast.
(“Record Levels of Gun Violence and the Democrats Dilemma,” The New Yorker, Jan. 25, 2022; “Adams Blames Bail Law After Release of Teen Charged in Officer Shooting,” New York Times, Jan. 28, 2022)
This week’s News Summary was narrated by Anna Manzo
