The United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced an agreement Sunday that would allow the two nations to collaborate on matters of space and aeronautics research, including the potential journey to Mars. [...] The two countries also announced that they would collaborate on education and public outreach.

In recent weeks, business deals between Australian and Chinese media groups have raised concerns over potential Chinese government influence in the Australian press. But according to a report in the Australian Financial Review, the media is not the only institution that has recently received Chinese government money as part of a soft power push by Beijing.

Every Sunday afternoon, rain or shine, a group of people gathers at a park in Tokyo’s bustling Ikebukuro district, where Japanese people studying Chinese and Chinese living in Japan can engage in lively conversation.

When the Chinese government donated a library to the University of Technology Sydney few people noticed. Only slightly more seemed to care when groups friendly to Beijing began funding think tanks in Australia, making political donations and paying primary schools to run Chinese language programs.

Dozens of Taiwanese citizens who completed interviews for student visas to the United States attended the first "Student Visa Day" held by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in Taipei on Friday to promote people-to-people exchanges. [...] The AIT has conducted several events to attract Taiwanese students to study in the U.S. and Friday's activity was designed to connect education and studying in the U.S. with visa experiences.

As part of Cultural Diplomacy, the Pakistan Embassy in Ankara organized the Chughtai Art Awards competition in the Konya province. The thematic focus of the competition was “Mughal/Turkish Art & Architecture of Pakistan.” The event was organized in collaboration with the Konya branch of Turkey’s Ministry of National Education.

Sitting in class, studying for a bachelors’ degree in business at the University of Kansas, Heidi Rickels felt her heart beating faster every time the professors talked about developing economies or international issues. So, after graduation, she moved to Colorado and began working for a nonprofit based in Denver that collects donated medical supplies to send overseas. 

Makerere University has started an academic collaboration program that will involve staff and student exchanges and scholarships for industry linked Master's degree programs with Chonbuk National University (CNU) of South Korea. The program was sanctioned through a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof John Ddumba Ssentamu and Lee Nam Ho, the president of Chonbuk National University in Kampala.