On Sunday, Pope Francis echoed Guterres’s call, tweeting his hope that “our joint fight against the #COVID-19 pandemic bring everyone to recognize the great need to reinforce brotherly and sisterly bonds.”

In geopolitical terms, though, such fraternal goodwill isn’t really on display. In Libya, Yemen and Syria, hostilities between various warring parties endured through the week. Within the European Union, the governments of Germany and the Netherlands balked at demands made by France, Italy, Portugal and Spain that the bloc issue joint bonds to help finance fiscal stimulus on the continent, raising more uncertainty about Europe’s unity as various countries squabble over the movement of goods and medical supplies amid the crisis.

Possibly the biggest clash amid the pandemic is the blame game playing out between China and the United States. After a phone call Thursday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Trump appeared to tone down his angry rhetoric toward China. But a slight change of atmospherics won’t stem the groundswell of antipathy toward Beijing that …continued .
[Source: Washington Post]