PMs Swear They're Not Making Fun of Trump's Orb Photo

The Guardian says they were trolling the president; they insist that isn't so. Unusually, the "they" in question are five Nordic prime ministers, who posed for a photo Monday in which they clutched a soccer ball—a seeming restaging of the photo President Trump took with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt in which they have their hands placed on a glowing orb. The prime ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway were in the latter country for a meeting, and Norway PM Erna Solberg posted the image to Facebook on Tuesday in a mash-up that placed the orb image on top. Her caption pointedly compared the two:

Translates Reuters, "Who rules the world? Riyadh vs Bergen. Don't know what those in the upper photo were thinking. In the lower one are the five Nordic prime ministers, holding a ball with the sustainability goals. We're hoping they'll be a roadmap for the future." But a Norwegian official tells the AP that teasing wasn't intended, and claims Solberg didn't initially realize the photo she took with Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Juha Sipila, Bjarni Benediktsson, and Stefan Lofven (of the aforementioned countries, respectively) happened to parallel the orb one. He says the UN sustainability goals the leaders were discussing were written on the ball. (Also being furiously discussed: The president's "covfefe tweet.")