The wait is over and the WorldPride parade is underway in downtown Toronto.  Toronto has had an annual Pride parade for more than three decades, but this year, it’s an even bigger party than usual due to the fact that the city is hosting World Pride for the first time.

Tags: toronto, canada, lgbt, gay pride, Cultural Diplomacy, soft power

Iran is ready to help Iraq fight an armed revolt using the same methods it deployed against opposition forces in Syria, an Iranian general said, suggesting Tehran is offering to take a larger role in battling Sunni militias threatening Baghdad.

Tags: aid diplomacy, military aid, iran, iraq, isis, conflict, sunni, shia islam

The US president leads the pack of world leaders on Twitter, according to a new report, blowing by the competition with an about 43.7 million followers.  Next closest is Pope Francis at 14.1 followers, although the pontiff was named the most influential world leader on Twitter because of how much he's retweeted (10,000 retweets for every tweet.) He also has followers in nine different languages.

Tags: social media, new technology, government pd, digital diplomacy, barack obama, pope francis

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said China will never seek to impose its will on other nations, no matter how strong it becomes.  With this speech, China's president had one clear goal: sending a message of reassurance to China's neighbours and other nations further afield watching this nation's rise, who wonder what sort of great power it may turn out to be.

Tags: china, soft power, east asia, india, myanmar

It might not be fashionable to spew racial slurs during the World Cup anymore (though they do on a near-continual basis), yet fans apparently feel it's okay to accuse the German team of being goose-stepping, Heil Hitler-ing Nazis. Especially when they score against team USA. This graphic from Regressing shows that during the Germany-U.S. game (which Germany won 1-0), plenty of people were thinking about the former country's murderous past:

Tags: germany, united states, twitter, social media, citizen diplomacy

he Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, today welcomed the announcement by SkyPower Global that the company is donating 5,000 solar-powered lights to South African villages without electricity so children can have light for reading and writing. The announcement was made during Minister Fast's trade mission to South Africa. In its 2010 Integrated Resource Plan, South Africa identified the need for more power generation from renewable sources to meet its growing energy needs and also to reduce greenhouse gases.

Tags: south africa, canada, energy, skypower global, africa, united states, government pd, global aid

Foreign Office brings World War 1 diplomacy to life online with podcasts and live tweets. To mark 100 years to the day that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, on 28 June the FCO will bring the events leading up to the outbreak of war vividly to life online. Known as the ‘July crisis’, the assassination sparked a diplomatic frenzy and, ultimately, led to the outbreak of World War 1 on 28 July 1914, with Great Britain joining the war on 4 August. 

Tags: united kingdom, world war i, public diplomacy, british ambassador, foreign commonwealth office, digital diplomacy

President Barack Obama's administration has taken the US gay rights revolution global, using American embassies across the world as outposts in a struggle that still hasn't been won at home. Sometimes US advice and encouragement is condemned as unacceptable meddling. And sometimes it can seem to backfire, increasing the pressure on those it is meant to help. With gay pride parades taking place in many cities across the world this weekend, the US role will be more visible than ever.

Tags: lgbtq, obama, united states, us embassies, public diplomacy, human rights, gay rights