This week, Alan, Quinta and Scott were joined by Lawfare managing editor Jacob Schulz to hash through some of the week's big national security news, including:

• “Le Pen 15 Club.” As France enters the final run-off round of its presidential election, incumbent Emmanuel Macron is being closely trailed by extreme right-wing leader Marine Le Pen. What explains Le Pen’s political potency? And what would a President Le Pen mean for the rest of the world?
• “The Biggest Botnet Takedown Since Geocities Deleted My Transformers FanFiction.” The Justice Department recently revealed that the United States and allied governments have been russia-malware-cyberattacks.html">secretly removing Russian malware from global networks in order to thwart potential cyber attacks. What does this strategy tell us about the future of cyber conflict?
• “Don’t Trust the DVE in Apartment 23.” Postal inspectors recently stumbled on a pair of heavily armed men impersonating DHS agents while living amidst—and showering expensive gifts on—Secret Service agents and other federal law enforcement officers in a Washington, D.C., apartment complex. What the hell was happening? And should we be concerned?

For object lessons, Alan invoked his love of nut spreads to endorse "pistacchiosa," a Sicilian pistachio spread with which he has recently become enamored. Quinta recommended Jonathan Chait's desantis-trumpism.html">recent article on Ron DeSantis and Trumpism after Trump (as well as the app Audm). Scott recommended the movie Coco as a next step for those who have gotten sucked into the Disney+ universe by Encanto. And Jacob passed along a representative memento of his recent West Coast trip: the humble (and ubiquitous) skateboard rack.

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