Politics today mixed spectacle with strain. In Washington, Donald Trump rolled out a Qatar-gifted Boeing 747 as a temporary Air Force One replacement, touting the lavishly refitted jet as a “flying White House” while critics questioned the optics and cost of accepting a foreign-donated aircraft as Boeing’s long-delayed replacements remain years away. Trump also used an Axios interview to lavish praise on India’s Narendra Modi as a “great leader” and “tough cookie,” underscoring his preference for strongman-style leadership even as he headed to Camp David for a weekend of meetings shadowed by uncertainty over stalled Iran diplomacy and wider regional instability. Elsewhere, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu extended customs chief Adewale Adeniyi’s tenure by six months, arguing continuity is needed to finish reforms and manage succession, though the move has stirred debate over career bottlenecks. In Australia, a federal inquiry exposed fresh distrust of big consultancies in a tense clash involving a former KPMG chief.