Omar Souleyman, a 49-year-old farmer-turned-wedding-singer from north-eastern Syria and a father of 9, is an unlikely electronic music star. This month he drew big crowds to KOKO, one of London’s most iconic music venues. Donning the jalabiya andkeffiyeh, traditional Arab garments, along with his signature aviator shades, he performed to a packed out venue full of white middle-class youth. 

China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative clearly reads as an audacious vision for transforming the political and economic landscapes of Eurasia and Africa over the coming decades via a network of infrastructure partnerships across the energy, telecommunications, logistics, law, IT, and transportation sectors. 

The first overseas Confucius Institute (CI) was set up in South Korea in 2004. It is a non-profit educational organisation dedicated to the promotion of the Chinese language (Mandarin) and culture. And because their modus operandi is to operate within learning institutions, there are continued criticisms from encroaching on academic freedom to even espionage.

Leonardo DiCaprio has visited the Indonesian jungle to help protect a biodiverse area from deforestation. [...] DiCaprio spent the weekend in the Leuser ecosystem, on Indonesia's main western island of Sumatra. The actor, an ardent supporter of environmental causes, was pictured accompanied by local environmentalists and flanked by two critically endangered Sumatran elephants.

Australia, which has accepted thousands of migrants from Afghanistan in recent years, [plans] to use a movie to persuade others from seeking refuge. Australia’s Immigration Department has commissioned a television movie that shows the hardships of Afghans attempting to reach Australia. The film aims to deter potential migrants by showing them difficulties they may experience during the journey.

Street artists are fighting back against Donald Trump. Various murals, stencils and posters depicting the GOP front-runner in assorted unflattering ways — comparing him to Adolf Hitler, Donald Duck and a piece of poop, among other things — have appeared on walls and sidewalks across the world in recent weeks.

The loss of Palmyra, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, was one of ISIS’s biggest setbacks since the group declared itself a caliphate in 2014. […] [Maamoun] Abdulkarim said he and other historians and archaeologists would travel to Palmyra to more deeply assess the damage, and to plan how they’ll restore the ancient ruins and sites.