St. Peter’s Square erupted in applause for Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Inside the Basilica, he and Donald Trump huddled with France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Keir Starmer. The occasion was the funeral of Pope Francis — but the optics were all about the geopolitics of the moment.

Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush will not attend the funeral. Bush spokesman Freddy Ford said the 43rd president “did not have the privilege of knowing Pope Francis” and therefore was unlikely to attend. During his presidency, Bush attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

Pope Francis was laid to rest on Saturday following his death at the age of 88, with around 200,000 mourners gathering in Vatican City to bid a final farewell—far exceeding initial expectations.The ceremony broke with Vatican tradition,