Notations From the Grid (Special Friday Edition): On @POTUS Watch

It has been quite a 24 hours again as President Trump continues his travels with his stop in the UK.   The Economist captured it earlier today as we present this "Snapshot" on our World courtesy of the Economist for this edition of "Notations From the Grid":

Donald Trump in BritainA brief but eventful visit   Protesters were out across Britain today to express their displeasure at Donald Trump’s first official visit. But the demonstrations, while large, were at least expected. Rather more shocking was the behaviour of Mr Trump himself, who gave an explosive interview to the Sun newspaper in which he criticised Theresa May’s handling of Brexit and heaped praise on Boris Johnson. That will have damaged the special relationship more than any demonstration

The World Cup Croatia’s long road to Moscow   In few other countries are politics and football as closely entwined as in Croatia. Its footballers and fans have long chanted a slogan linked with the genocidal regime that ruled the country during the second world war. The chant has brought Croatia myriad problems with international football bodies. A victory in the World Cup final on Sunday could be worth more in terms of positive publicity for Croatia than years of global PR campaigns

Middle East economiesSticky situation   Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates enjoy many advantages, such as wealth and good infrastructure, that generally lead to innovation. But they perform badly in a new ranking of innovation in 126 countries. Arab petro-states may enjoy Western levels of consumption but they lack Western levels of productivity. Their poor showing in the index is one indication of the mountain they have to climb to find non-oil sources of growth

Automating cookeryRobotatouille   Until recently, catering robots have been gimmicks. But new robot chefs can prepare entire meals. They are working, or soon will be, in kitchens in America (making burgers and pizza) and China (making Hunan cuisine). One British firm aspires to emulate a real chef—not only in the quality of the meals, but also by being able to learn to cook almost any recipe. This is a complicated proposition. For now,sous-chefs everywhere can breathe easy

Open FutureTrans rights and feminist rights have been falsely cast in opposition   What is a woman? Who can be a feminist? These questions have been central to feminist theory since the 1970s, but in recent years have returned to haunt feminism. “While anti-transgender viewpoints are a minority position, many [high-profile writers] reinforce the extremely offensive trope of the trans woman as a man in drag who is a danger to women,” writes Sally Hines, a professor at the University of Leeds, for our transgender identities essay series As President Trump gears up for his summit with President Putin of Russia, The Special Counsel indicted 12 Russian Nationals and the White House said that it is "Consistent with what it has been saying all along as the Republicans in the House continued their attempts to somehow discredit the investigation.  This from the Washington Examiner was just reported out : The White House on Friday said the latest round of indictments against 12 Russian nationals as part of the special counsel investigation is "consistent" with President Trump's claim that his campaign did not collude with the Kremlin during the 2016 election. "Today's charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result," White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement. "This is consistent with what we have been saying all along." Read the full story here. In our view, the full story is yet to be told no doubt as the Public Relations Campaign by the President continues.