One of the starkest moments from the Group of 20 came when U.S. President Donald Trump skipped a session on the pandemic to hit the golf course. Just as telling was how many other leaders seemed checked out.
The virtual gathering of the world’s top economies, including host Saudi Arabia, was always going to be uncomfortable: The first Arab nation to assume the presidency, with a question mark hanging over it after the murder of government critic Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Then came the devastation unleashed by the coronavirus that turned a source of national pride into a low-key affair that laid bare the limitations of global cooperation when so many were looking inwards.
The live feed captured glimpses of Russia’s Vladimir Putin arriving late, Spain’s Pedro Sanchez and France’s Emmanuel Macron checking their mobile phones, and the U.K.’s Boris Johnson looking uncombed and reading from his notes. Yet the stakes for the world couldn’t be higher.
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