The bold digital diplomacy campaign marked last year’s International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), celebrated annually around the world on May 17. The decision to fly the rainbow flag was significant in that Canada was the first country to fly the LGBT flag at one of its embassies in the Arab world. And it provided great material for a social media advocacy campaign.

In 2016 interviews, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter compared the ISIS base in the Middle East to a tumor, demonstrating the cancer analogy had embedded in the administration’s thinking: "There are metastases elsewhere – Libya, Afghanistan…." The analogy, while sobering, offers a useful way to think about the strategies to challenge the Islamic State.

Last Wednesday afternoon, four thousand miles away, Wolfgang Tillmans slouched at his desk. The photographer had Skyped me from the apartment above his Berlin studio, to discuss the poster campaign he’d released that day against “Brexit,” the British referendum on quitting the European Union, slated for June 23rd. […] if the E.U. is to survive, Tillmans said, it must become fashionable.

World Press Freedom Day aims to raise awareness of press freedom. It falls this year on Tuesday, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the world’s first freedom of information law and the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Windhoek Declaration of press freedom principles in Africa.

Trust-building measures through candid exchange and action via multilateral and bilateral accords on key common challenges are needed, specifically counterfeiting, cyber-crime, piracy, terrorism, greater financial openness, and transparency.