For the past 15 years the U.S. has been recruiting pro baseball and basketball players to serve as diplomatic envoys to Muslim nations. Now with Dean Karnazes, we’ve begun sending adventure athletes abroad to build good will. [...]  The State Department launched its current sports diplomacy program after the September 11 terrorist attacks, largely to connect with and provide alternative activities to young Muslim youth who might be at risk of joining extremist groups. 

Sport has become an essential tool in the European Union’s soft power approach. Over the past few years, the political vision promoting economic development through sport has become a standard practice in Europe’s policies of solidarity and sustainable development. Yet, how can the European experience help improve the Olympic ideal of using sport to promote peace and prosperity?

Moscow’s V-A-C Foundation—owned by Leonid Mikhelson, recently named Russia’s wealthiest man—will open a four-story exhibition space and artist residency at the Palazzo delle Zattere in Dorsoduro during the Venice Biennale vernissage. This will not, however, be an outpost devoted to the display of Russian art. [...] the V-A-C space will be defined by the opportunities it offers for collaborative production of new exhibitions and new work—by artists, curators, and visitors from across the geopolitical divides of the world.

Through the program, she met a Burmese cook and refugee named Zin Zin, and the two women teamed up to teach classes about nutrition and "the unique challenges of eating healthy in the U.S.," a new country where much of the food available is unfamiliar to refugees from Southeast Asia, Somalia and other strife-torn regions of the world. Funds through grants were extremely limited, though, so Toscano created Fooition as a way to raise money to help continue her mission.

Speaking at the plaque-unveiling ceremony, representative of Portuguese science and technology and higher education minister Joao Queiroz said he believed the new institute would not only make a remarkable contribution to the dissemination of the Chinese language and culture, but would also further deepen the cooperation between Portugal and China.

It feels next year offers the best time to introduce this change with 2017 designated the UK-India Year of Culture. When both nations aim to build on strong collaboration in business, art, music, design and other fields. Having a cheaper and extended UK visitor visa will help enhance these endeavors, the report said.  

Burundians in France gathered this weekend to mark the 55th anniversary of their Independence. Celebrations were marked by traditional songs and dances, together with culinary delights from back home.