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An incursion of Russian drones into Poland’s airspace brought a respite in the bare-knuckles conflict between the country’s MAGA-backed president, Karol Nawrocki, and its veteran prime minister, Donald Tusk.

Hours before NATO took the unprecedented decision to shoot down the UAVs yesterday, Tusk was still needling Nawrocki on X over aspects of his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

Last week’s visit to Washington was something of a coup for the president, who took office in early August after a long-shot election victory. Nawrocki won a commitment from Trump that the US won’t pull troops from Poland and may even increase its 10,000-strong contingent.

It was, Nawrocki told reporters, something Tusk’s government hadn’t been able to do in more than two years.

The president has additionally been deploying his veto power with gusto, prompting Fitch Ratings to warn it may lower Poland’s credit rating if the “environment of high political polarization” gets in the way of curbing the ballooning fiscal deficit.

It’s no secret that Nawrocki’s goal is to orchestrate the return to power of the nationalist opposition that fielded him for the presidency.

But that sense of mutual friction evaporated yesterday as Tusk and Nawrocki worked the phones with NATO allies and cooperated on the response.

Whether it lasts is an open question. The opposition wasted no time criticizing the government for failing to establish effective anti-drone defenses.

The bigger worry for Polish officials is the inscrutable reaction to the incursion from Trump.

Marek Magierowski, a former ambassador to the US, noted in a commentary on the Wirtualna Polska website the “nonchalance and silence” from across the Atlantic.

That sense of US absence is also being felt across the Gulf after Israel’s strike on Qatar.

In Poland, it just might keep internal tensions in check. — Piotr Skolimowski

Officials secure parts of a downed drone in Wohyn, Poland, yesterday. Photographer: Rafal Niedzielski/AP Photo

Global Must Reads

Investigators are searching for the killer of Charlie Kirk, a close ally of Trump who was fatally shot yesterday at an outdoor event at a Utah university. As one of the country’s most prominent conservative figures, 31-year-old Kirk helped energize the youth with a brash approach to politics and proved essential to returning Trump to the White House.

Kirk speaks before he was shot in Orem, Utah. Photographer: Tess Crowley/The Deseret News

Frustrated European leaders are threatening sanctions on Israel and rethinking ties to their ally amid the destruction in Gaza and this week’s bombing in Qatar, though one area they haven’t touched is their involvement with the multibillion dollar Israeli defense industry. Israel’s attack on Qatar, a major US ally, has left Arab leaders across the Middle East questioning the value of American security guarantees, while Israeli weapons makers have been barred from one of the world’s biggest aerospace expos in the United Arab Emirates.

Jair Bolsonaro’s fate hangs in the balance after Brazil Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux voted against the former president’s conviction on coup attempt charges, the first member of the five-strong panel overseeing the trial to clear him. Two judges declared Bolsonaro guilty on Tuesday, meaning the panel is one vote shy of the majority necessary to convict the right-wing former leader.

France’s new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has broad cross-party appeal but that may still not be enough to secure parliamentary backing for his minority government’s 2026 budget in a fractured National Assembly. Opposition forces joined in a confidence vote this week to oust his predecessor, whose finance plan included €44 billion ($51 billion) in tax hikes and spending cuts, and the new premier will need to come up with concessions in a revised proposal without losing his own pro-business centrist base.

Lecornu, right, and former PM François Bayrou at a handover ceremony yesterday. Photographer: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg

Pressure is rising on Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador in Washington, following revelations over Mandelson’s links to deceased serial sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. The prominent Labour politician is under fire after the publication this week of a 2003 birthday book showed he penned a 10-page tribute calling Epstein his “best pal” — and now Bloomberg News has obtained more than 100 unreported emails between the two showing that their relationship was deeper than previously known.

Mexico plans to impose tariffs of as much as 50% on cars and other products made by China and several Asian exporters, aligning the country more closely with US protectionism as President Claudia Sheinbaum prepares for talks over North America’s free-trade deal.

China has pushed back against Washington’s proposed new visa limits on Chinese journalists in the US, one of many sour points in relations even as a fragile trade truce appears to be holding.

Democrats are threatening to block a bill needed to avert an Oct. 1 US government shutdown unless Republicans agree to stop a sharp spike in Obamacare health-insurance premiums or meet other demands by the minority party.  

The Spanish Parliament voted down Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s proposal to reduce the working week in the latest setback to his struggling minority government.  

Why is the price of money rising and what does Trump have to do with it? On this week’s Trumponomics podcast, host Stephanie Flanders is joined by Bloomberg Economics’ Jamie Rush and Tom Orlik to explore the global forces driving up interest rates, and what higher borrowing costs mean for governments, businesses and households. Listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Chart of the Day

“Made in China” labels have come to dominate the global goods trade even as the nation’s financial markets remained walled off from the world. Now, after years of tentative opening, China has reached a tipping point that may have worldwide implications every bit as significant as its manufacturing revolution. For the first time, the amount of money pouring in and out of the nation in search of investment opportunities is exceeding the value of goods and services its trade engines generate.

And Finally

Denmark’s corporate champions once seemed untouchable. Now, drugmaker Novo Nordisk is cutting thousands of jobs after losing its lead in the US obesity market, and Ørsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, has scrapped multibillion-dollar projects due to supply-chain snags and Trump’s war on the power source. There are fears Denmark is facing a so-called Nokia risk — a reference to how Finland entered a downward spiral after its overdependence on the company left it exposed when Apple’s iPhone came along.

Commuters cross a pedestrian bridge during morning rush hour to the Novo Nordisk production complex in Kalundborg. Photographer: Carsten Snejbjerg/Bloomberg

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