By Sharanya Gopinathan
This week has been a literal whirlwind of foreign affairs. Donald Trump made a visit to Warsaw, Poland, while Narendra Modi became the first-ever sitting Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel (prompting Israeli media organisations to write op-eds with titles that began Who Is Narendra Modi?). Right now, we’re simultaneously getting reports of world leaders schmoozing (and butting heads) with each other, and reports of the city of Hamburg burning in protests held by the far-left against the global capitalism that the G-20 summit represents.
Of course and as always, we are only here for the jollies, and this week had plenty of those as well. It began when the First Lady of Poland, during Donald Trump’s visit to Warsaw, sailed past him and ignored the hand he proffered for a handshake, leaving him looking grumpy-faced while she greeted his wife Melania instead. Of course, it felt like a neat and satisfying echo of the time Trump refused to shake German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hand during her visit to Washington DC earlier this year.
Funnier still was Angela Merkel’s response yesterday to Vladimir Putin (whom the Indian Express has decided to call Vlandimir) as he appeared to mansplain ballistic missiles to her. While discussing the issue, Merkel seems to indicate a missile pattern with her hand, and Putin shakes his head and waggles his finger at her in response, to which Merkel couldn’t help but roll her eyes in irritation in an exchange that’s been immortalised now in memes, GIFs and tweets on social media.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/883366502304559107
Just some fun and totally unconnected trivia to let you know the world is in safe hands before we leave: Donald Trump has famously said that he likes to grab women by the pussy, Vladimir Putin is a huge sexist who thinks women have “bad days” when they are on their period and cannot think clearly, and Angela Merkel is against gay marriage and does not identify as a feminist.