The United States has overtaken Britain as the world’s leading “soft power”, according to a survey claiming that US President Barack Obama’s diplomatic moves in Iran, Cuba and Asia have helped to shift global opinion of the superpower. [...] The Soft Power 30 survey uses a range of polling and digital data to measure a country’s appeal on issues ranging from government, culture and cuisine to education, enterprise and the attractiveness of luxury brands.

What if the solutions to Europe’s most pressing problems lie not in politics or diplomacy, but in art and culture? With the European Union under pressure from economic stagnation, a wave of refugees, terror attacks and the possibility of Britain leaving the bloc, more than 150 cultural figures from 37 countries — including the actor Jude Law and the architect Rem Koolhaas — gathered here at a forum last week to explore that possibility.

The Annie Leibowitz portait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II surrounded by her great grandchildren...quite simply, stunning. And mesmerising. [...] Having admired her many gruelling decades of public engagements, her fortitude, diplomacy and devotion to duty vanishingly few of us would want to be Queen in her stead.

While western media coverage of North Korea's Kim Jong-un is rightly critical, a recent video uploaded to YouTube is making people question the treatment of our own unelected head of state. [...] While it does not exactly offer the perfect comparison in terms of the two regimes, it does arguably highlight an uncomfortable truth about idolisation.