As they filed into the front pews at Washington National Cathedral, wearing dark suits and mostly solemn faces, five current and former presidents came together for Jimmy Carter’s funeral. During a service that stretched more than an hour, the feuding, grievances and enmity that had marked their rival campaigns and divergent politics gave way to a reverential moment for one of their own.

Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the first two of the group to take their seats Thursday, shook hands and chatted at length. Trump, the former president who will retake the Oval Office in 11 days, leaned in and listened intently to his predecessor, notwithstanding the political chasm between them. At times, the two flashed smiles.

Trump later returned to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida Thursday night to meet with Republican governors and refused to say what he and Obama discussed, but joked, “It did look very friendly, I must say.”

“I didn’t realize how friendly it looked. I said, ‘Boy they look like two people who like each other and we probably do,” he said. “We have little different philosophies, right, but we probably do.”

The president-elect added, “I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”

Obama, who attended Carter’s funeral without his wife, Michelle, shared a second-row pew with former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with their spouses. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived last and sat in the pew just in front of them.

Members of the exclusive presidents’ club were on their best behavior. Bonded by the presidency, they rarely criticize one another or the White House’s current occupant — though Trump has flouted those rules frequently. He has both praised and criticized Carter in recent days, and he complained that flags will still be at half-staff to honor the deceased president during his inauguration.

In one seemingly chilly moment, Trump looked up when Vice President Kamala Harris — whom he defeated in November’s hard-fought election — entered the cathedral, but he didn’t move to greet her as she and husband Doug Emhoff took seats directly in front of him and Melania Trump. Nor did Harris acknowledge him.

After the service, Emhoff made a point to turn around and shake hands with Trump.

Obama, with Trump on his left, also turned to his right to chat with Bush. Clinton, with wife Hillary, was the last of the ex-presidents to take a seat and got in some chatter with Bush as well.

The White House said the former presidents also met privately before taking their seats. There was no word on what was said then, though Trump said later of its participants, “We all got along very well.”

Funerals are among the few events that bring members of the presidents’ club together. In a way, former President Gerald Ford was there, too: Ford’s son Steven read a eulogy for Carter that Ford had written before he died in 2006.

Busy with personal pursuits, charitable endeavors and sometimes lucrative speaking gigs, the former leaders don’t mingle often. They all know the protocol of state funerals well — each has been involved in planning his own.

During the 2018 funeral for George H.W. Bush, then-President Trump sat with his predecessors and their spouses, including the Carters, and the interactions were stiff and sometimes awkward.

This time, Trump also didn’t appear to interact with Hillary Clinton, whom he defeated in the 2016 election.

Trump was seated in the pew in front of his former vice president, Mike Pence — one of the few times they have coincided at events since Pence refused to overturn the results of the 2020 election after Trump lost to Biden. The two shook hands but didn’t speak much beyond that. Pence’s wife, Karen, appeared to avoid engaging with the president-elect.

Trump, who largely avoided contact with the former presidents during his first term — and pointedly did not seek their advice — has been critical of Republican former presidents, particularly the Bush family, which made him an uneasy member of the former presidents’ club. Carter himself didn’t particularly relish being a member of the club, at times criticizing its staid traditions.

Many past presidents have built relationships with their predecessors, including Bill Clinton, who reached out to Richard Nixon for advice on Russian policy, and Harry S. Truman, who sought counsel from Herbert Hoover.

One of the first calls Obama made after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 was to George W. Bush to spread the word that the mission had been accomplished, said Kate Andersen Brower, author of “Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump.”

“It’s the loneliest job in the world, so usually they reach out and rely on each other,” said Andersen Brower. “But Trump didn’t have that the first term, so this will just be another four years where he doesn’t depend on anyone who came before him.”

She noted that Carter spent years as a proud Washington outsider and skipped the unveiling of his own portrait to avoid being in the same room with the man who beat him in 1980, President Ronald Reagan.

“Carter and Trump, even though they have the least in common about everything else, are similar,” Andersen Brower said, “in just how they approach telling what they actually think.”

Gunfire erupted Wednesday evening near the presidency in Chad’s capital N’Djamena, with tanks and a heavy security presence on the streets, according to AFP reporters on the scene.

A security source said armed men had attacked the interior of the presidential compound, but authorities made no immediate comment.

All roads leading to the presidency have been blocked and tanks could be seen on the streets of the capital, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

As civilians rushed out of the centre in cars and motorcycles, armed police were seen at several points in the centre.

The gunfire erupted less than two weeks after the landlocked country in Africa’s northern half held a contested general election.

The government hailed it as a key step towards ending military rule, but it was marked by low turnout and opposition allegations of fraud.

The election had taken place against a backdrop of recurring attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region, the ending of a military accord with former colonial master France, and accusations that Chad was interfering in the conflict ravaging neighbouring Sudan.

Several hours earlier on Wednesday, China’s foreign minister Wang Li met with President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno and other senior officials.

– France’s last Sahel bases –

The former French colony hosted France’s last military bases in the region known as the Sahel, but at the end of November it ended the defence and security agreements with Paris, calling them “obsolete”.

Around a thousand French military personnel were stationed there and are in the process of being withdrawn.

France is now reconfiguring its military presence in Africa after being driven out of three Sahelian countries governed by juntas hostile to Paris — Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Senegal and Ivory Coast have also asked France to leave military bases on their territory.

Deby took power in 2021 after the death of his father, who had ruled the Sahel country with an iron fist for three decades.

The country’s opposition has accused his government of being autocratic and repressive.

The desert country is an oil producer but is ranked fourth from bottom in the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI).

To consolidate his grip on power, Deby has reshuffled the army, historically dominated by the Zaghawas and Gorane, his mother’s ethnic group.

On the diplomatic front, he has sought new strategic partnerships, including with Russia and Hungary.

Ukrainian armed forces on Sunday night began a surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk region.

This was in an apparent attempt to regain the initiative on the battlefield before Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House, according to The Guardian UK.

Video emerged on social media showing Ukrainian armoured columns advancing across snowy fields towards the village of Bolshoe Soldatskoe, which is located northeast of the Ukrainian-held Russian town of Sudzha.

Vehicles could also be seen driving through empty, rustic settlements.

Russian military bloggers reported fierce fighting between the sides, while Ukraine’s general staff said 42 combat clashes took place on Sunday in the Kursk area, with 12 continuing.

Reports, yet to be confirmed, said that Ukrainian troops had entered the Russian hamlets of Berdin and Novosotnitskii.

Recall that Ukraine launched a significant cross-border raid nearly six months ago into the Kursk region.

It was the first time enemy tanks had penetrated Russian territory since the Second World War and was a major embarrassment for the Kremlin.