From the outside, it might have looked like a routine diplomatic stop. Emmanuel Macron, in Doha, meeting Qatari leaders, discussing energy and regional stability. But inside, the French president was simmering. When reporters brought up the unrest that had convulsed France over the weekend—the burning cars, the shattered storefronts, the plume of smoke above Limoges city hall—Macron did not hide his fury. He said that comments from Donald Trump and other foreign leaders about the street chaos were “as unacceptable as they are stupid.” The phrase was blunt, almost uncharacteristically so for a leader who usually chooses his words like…

On an otherwise ordinary Monday at King Phalo Airport, the airport formerly known as East London Airport, the familiar sounds of departure announcements and rolling luggage were suddenly overshadowed by fear. It was October 21, and what began as a routine day of travel for passengers, pilots, and cabin crew quickly became a scene of tense uncertainty when a bomb threat was reported on a commercial aircraft. The chilling message, delivered by an anonymous caller to the passenger information desk, claimed that there was a bomb on board. In an era when security alerts are taken with the utmost seriousness,…