Notations From the Grid (Special Edition): On the Trump Peace Plan & #RandomThoughts On Climate Crisis

As we went to press, Donald Trump announced the long-awaited the US Peace Plan as he has committed to a two-state solution.  This is as the Israeli Prime Minister is by his side--while being indicted in Israel on corruption charges.    Our team will have further updates within the next few days.   Mahmoud Abbas is due to make a statement later on today.

We close out this brief Notation with this takeaway on the Climate Crisis:

| 5 TAKES ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS In his plenary speech, U.S. President Donald Trump referred to climate scientists as "perennial prophets of doom" and claimed a record of environmental leadership — signing on to WEF's initiative to restore, conserve, and plant 1 trillion trees as proof. That didn't stop some attendees in the packed hall from rolling their eyes. Here's what a few others had to say on climate:

Notations On Our World (Weekly Edition): On Our World.....

This weekend was the advent of the Chinese Lunar Year and TET.  Here in Southern California, The cities of Garden Grove and Westminster held parades and Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley Celebrated TET--Happy New Lunar Year to all!!

It is going to be another busy week throughout our Platforms.   In line with our continued commitment to bring the World to our Platforms, this weekly compilation courtesy the team at the Visual Capitalist underscores the state of our World and a number of focus areas for us as well:

Sunday Digest: Last Week's Infographics

Here are all the new infographics from last week in one easy place!

How China Overtook U.S. as the World's Major Trading Partner

China has become the world's major trading partner – and now, 128 of 190 countries trade more with China than they do with the United States.

Visualizing the Expanse of the ETF Universe

The global ETF universe has grown to be worth $5.75 trillion — here's how the assets break down by type, sector, and investment focus.

Tesla's Valuation Surpasses Ford and GM Combined

Tesla is not only the top valued US automaker, it's now worth more than Ford and GM combined. Will the rally go on, or will short sellers win the day?

Ranked: The World's Most Downloaded Apps

The app economy is expected to be over $6 trillion by 2021—see the world's most downloaded apps and how they're driving the future of this market.

Mapping the Global Flow of Foreign Aid

This infographic looks at who is giving – and who is receiving – the billions of dollars in foreign aid that flows between countries each year.

Internet Browser Market Share (1996–2019)

A nostalgic look back at the market share of various web browsers, from Netscape Navigator to Google Chrome.

Visualizing Unequal State Tax Burdens Across America

Poor families pay a higher share of their income towards state and local taxes than wealthy families. These maps show the inequitable tax burdens.

This Week's Flashback Favorite: The World's Most Powerful Reserve Currencies

Here are the reserve currencies that the world's central banks hold onto for a rainy day. Originally from October 2019

As our team will be providing daily assessment over our Twitter Corner regarding Impeachment, the health emergency that originated in China, the challenges throughout the Middle East, the World awaits the dawn of the Middle East Peace Plan which has been in the works for about 3 years now.  The Israeli Prime Minister and Key Opposition figure are slated to meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington before it is released--the Palestinians have already rejected it as they have been left out of the process and as the United States withdrew long-standing support to the United Nations Refugee Agency, recognized Jerusalem as Israel's Capital and walked away from a commitment to a Two-State Solution.   Israel's Haaretz noted one column as the World Awaits: As the US Elections heats up, we close out this edition with this cautionary note: Global Economy A plot twist in Donald Trump’s US growth story The president’s ‘roaring geyser’ narrative may be about to run out of steam JANUARY 26, 2020 by Rana Foroohar As China dealt with the deadly outbreak (and our Twitter Channel headlines the latest courtesy China Daily), then there is India as it celebrated 71 years of Independence on Republic Day.   However, the Economist of London underscored profound challenges India Faces: '         Our cover this week looks at how Narendra Modi and the BJP are sowing division in India. Last month they changed the law to make it easier for adherents of all the subcontinent’s religions, except Islam, to acquire citizenship. At the same time, they want to compile a register of all India’s 1.3bn citizens. Those sound like technicalities, but many of the country’s 200m Muslims do not have the papers to prove they are Indian, so they risk being made stateless. Ominously, the government has ordered the building of camps to detain those caught in the net. The scheme looks like the most ambitious step yet in a decades-long project of incitement against Muslims. That is electoral nectar for the BJP, but political poison for India. By undermining the secular principles of the constitution, Mr Modi’s latest initiatives threaten to do damage to democracy. They also risk spilling innocent blood. To drive home this point, the Indian National Congress undertook a very cute outreach to the Indian Prime Minister which we caught on Social Media--it began with a notice noting that it had purchased a copy of the Indian Constitution for the Indian Prime Minister: It then went on both on Hindi & English to cite excerpts of the Constitution: Never a dull moment in our World.....