Friends of ESRA held their annual fundraising dinner on Thursday of last week to aid ESRA’s “Give a child a future” campaign, with MK Michael Oren delivering a speech on “The Israel-U.S. relationship.” [...] She added that Oren called on Israel to give more support to American Jewish students on the front lines of the public diplomacy battle.

There’s a vintage example of American exceptionalism in the Financial Times this week, by the paper’s US editor Gary Silverman. The article is about the appointment of Trevor Noah to the vacant Jon Stewart berth on The Daily Show. But Noah’s controversial Twitter history isn’t what concerns Silverman. Instead, he sees Noah’s career arc – growing up bi-racial in Soweto, where “my existence itself was a crime”, emigrating to America, working his way up in short order to the most prestigious satire gig in the country – as a classic tale of “American soft power”. 

The Havana excursion, which Team Coco’s editors are still furiously cutting together, represents a new form for him, an hour-long episode set to air March 4 where he is the perpetual “fish out of water” — an attempt to use comedy as a kind of diplomacy. “Maybe it's not a bad form of diplomacy. Maybe it's not bad to send a comedian over,” Conan said of the thawing U.S.-Cuba relations spearheaded by the Obama administration. 

He’s grinned through countless national TV shows and public appearances, but backstage at a Beijing bookstore, China’s ‘most famous foreigner’ is feeling a little nervous. A minute or so into his Dashan & Friends comic ensemble, the Mandarin-fluent Canadian comic Mark Rowswell comes perilously close to choking.

In Thailand, protesters are calling for the prime minister's resignation and street rallies have turned deadly. So how do journalists cover the anti-government protests, without running afoul of the government? Try Shallow News in Depth — an online parody newscast. The show uses sarcasm and slapstick comedy to comment on the current political situation. And while that may be old hat to American fans of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, it is unusual for Thailand.

Over the past few years, Sabir Nazar has emerged as Pakistan's best known cartoonist for drawing a series of cartoons that take a sharply critical look at religious orthodoxy, conspiracy theories, and misinterpretations of current affairs that feed into the Pakistani mass consciousness. Through cartoons and comments posted on the social networking site Facebook, he offers biting insights that turn commonly-held viewpoints and beliefs about Pakistan on their heads.

He may be an award-winning satirist in the United States, but in China, even Stephen Colbert is not beyond parody: A provincial TV channel in the country has produced a show that borrows rather liberally from the popular American program. The Banquet, broadcast on Ningxia Satellite TV, lifted the entire opening credits and other graphics from The Colbert Report.

Although Kim Jong-Un is no stranger to the international spotlight – from hanging out with NBA legend Dennis Rodman to being named the Sexiest Man Alive in 2012 – the North Korean dictator is rarely photographed outside of Pyongyang. One enterprising Australian man with an uncanny resemblance to the Supreme Leader brings the likeness of Kim to the streets of Hong Kong – without sparking a diplomatic crisis. The Mao suit-donning impersonator shocks passerby and provides an otherwise impossible photo opportunity for tourists.