As if Europe wasn’t going through enough upheaval right now, the French presidential election threatens to unleash another wave of uncertainty across the Continent.

French President Emmanuel Macron, the incumbent, and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen will head to a runoff election in two weeks following a tight first round of voting yesterday. Early projections showed that Macron earned 28.1% of votes, versus Le Pen’s 23.3%.

It’s a solid result for Macron, whose big lead over Le Pen vanished in recent weeks. But it also means Le Pen is closer than ever to winning. And if she were to pull off the upset in the runoff, it could set off a vibe shift as big as the UK’s Brexit vote or Donald Trump’s election as US president in 2016.

Le Pen is far to the right of the centrist Macron, who last week deemed her a “racist.” She gained notoriety for her hard-line stance on immigration and, during this election cycle, has proposed banning Muslim headscarves in public spaces, calling them an “Islamist uniform.” She’s also a nationalist who has criticized international collabs like NATO and the European Union.

In this campaign, however, Le Pen focused more on domestic economic issues. Fuel and food prices are soaring in France—Europe’s second largest economy—and Le Pen tightened the race considerably by speaking to voters’ cost-of-living concerns.

Macron didn’t really run much of a campaign at all. He’s turned most of his attention to the war in Ukraine, and only bothered to hold one major rally in the lead-up to the vote.

The French people are also pretty apathetic about the election. Voter turnout could be the lowest in 20 years.

Bottom line: When Macron and Le Pen last duked it out in a runoff election five years ago, Macron dominated 67% to 33%. If Macron were to win again this time around, it will be by a much slimmer margin.

Elon Musk isn’t joining Twitter’s board after all. In what’s quickly become the steamiest corporate soap opera of 2022, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said last night that Elon Musk had declined the board seat that was offered to him. Agrawal said Twitter would be open to Elon’s input as the company’s largest shareholder, but also told his team to “tune out the noise” and execute on the work ahead.

The war in Ukraine is entering its second phase. Russian forces are focusing their efforts on securing the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where battles with Ukrainian defenders are expected to be more conventional than the guerilla-type warfare seen around Kyiv. Over the weekend, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Kyiv to show solidarity with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

How bad is the latest Covid wave? We don’t really know. The average number of US cases has hit its highest level in a month, but due to the drawdown in testing centers and the uptick of at-home tests, experts assume that many cases are going unreported. Dr. Fauci said on Sunday that individuals must assess their own risk levels, which reflects the US’ shift in strategy to treat Covid like an endemic disease.

When a headlight is out, a cop pulls over your car and approaches the window to have a chat. But what happens when no one is driving the vehicle?

A video posted this weekend gives us some answers. On April 1, a Chevy Bolt operated by the autonomous driving company Cruise was pulled over in San Francisco (it’s unclear what infraction the robot violated). After the police officer peeked inside the car and saw that no one was in it, the car fled the scene…and parked again on the next block to await its fate.

In response to the video, Cruise said that the car followed the game plan: “Our AV yielded to the police vehicle, then pulled over to the nearest safe location…as intended.” Even better, the robot driver got away without a citation.

Big picture: Scenarios like this are going to become a lot more common for San Franciscans. Cruise opened up a small-scale autonomous robotaxi service in the city on Feb. 1, and Alphabet’s Waymo began offering SF residents nighttime rides a few weeks ago.

Inflation watch: The consumer price index is the highlight of a busy week for economic data. Inflation is expected to have jumped 7.9% from a year ago, which both you and the Fed consider much too high. The central bank could hike interest rates by a meatier one-half percentage point at its meeting next month.

Earnings season is back: JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and other big banks kick off the first-quarter earnings season. Their profits are projected to have plunged from last year, when the economy was roaring back from the Covid recession.

Holidays! Passover begins at sundown on Friday night, and Easter is on Sunday. The stock market will be closed for Good Friday.

Everything else:

• Coachella begins on Friday in the California desert.
• The NBA play-in tournament runs through the week, and the real playoffs start on Saturday.
• Tuesday is National Grilled Cheese Day. I’m an American-cheese guy, but here are some other cheeses to try for your sammie.

Stat: Remember when we thought Covid signaled the end of IRL…everything? Well, as of Q3 2021, US businesses had 7% more physical locations than they did pre-Covid, according to a new report from the think tank Economic Innovation Group (EIG). The predicted collapse of small businesses “failed to materialize,” EIG research and policy associate Connor O’Brien wrote.

Quote: “I have known Dr. Oz for many years, as have many others, even if only through his very successful television show.”

Former President Trump threw his endorsement behind celebrity physician Mehmet Oz in the blockbuster Senate GOP race in Pennsylvania. It’s a blow to Oz’s toughest opponent, David McCormick, the former CEO of top hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. McCormick had been seeking Trump’s stamp of approval.

Read: The Noom paradox. (Vox)

Dive back into the week:

• Shallow dive: Cool party trick
• Medium dive: The Comic Sans–Helvetica collab we didn’t know we needed
• Deep dive: Who Americans trust for information
• Cannonball: How to cut Michelin star onions

Nic Cage answered your questions: Read the actor’s Reddit AMA from over the weekend.

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Turntable: Thanks to everyone who gave feedback on last week’s experiment with a timed Turntable challenge. Today, we’re giving readers the option to play the classic, untimed version of the game and a five-minute timed version.

Click here for untimed Turntable.

Click here for the faster-paced game.

Nutritional facts

We’ll give you the ingredient list of a popular food product; you have to figure out what it is.

Today’s product has just six ingredients: Pork with ham, salt, water, potato starch, sugar, sodium nitrate.

If you need help waking up this Monday morning, this might give you a jolt: Tax Day is a week from today. No need to stress if you haven’t filed yet—the Money Scoop Tax Guide is your dependable resource for understanding your taxes, from side hustles to NFTs.

Check it out.

This editorial content is supported by TaxAct.