Tetsundo Tanabe was running a kendo dojo in Yokohama when he came up with an idea on how children could avoid the pain of getting smashed over the head with a bamboo sword. His solution was simple: Use softer weapons. [...] Forty-five years after that brainstorm, 400,000 people in 65 countries and regions are playing Tanabe’s invention, called sports “chanbara” (sword fighting), or “spochan” for short. 

Confucius Institutes in Egypt are seeing a huge surge in popularity. According to the manager at the Institute at Cairo University, they are gradually moving away from targeting students of the Chinese language, and are beginning to attract interest from different faculties, and educational establishments in other cities across Egypt.

Park Jae Yang, the director of the Korean Cultural Center, said that "the contest aims to promote cultural exchange between Egypt and South Korea through food, which has a growing role in bringing people together." He added: "Korean food, also known as hansik, has a very long tradition and history.It was well established by the Joson Dynasty in the 14th century."

China is quickly becoming a world power, capable of exercising considerable influence over other countries. And it is advancing to the centre of the geopolitical stage just as — if not because — American and European leadership seems to be retreating into the wings. China certainly has a receptive audience. One reason is that the “darker nations”, as the international-studies scholar Vijay Prashad calls global-South countries, feel greater kinship with China than with the United States and Europe.

In the context of this fraught historical moment, Tehran’s new exhibition is being promoted as a bracing act of cultural diplomacy. The exhibition is a collaboration between the government-owned TMoCA, the commercial Mohsen Gallery, and the Emirati Barjeel Art Foundation. It encompasses work from a variety of Arab countries 

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) is showcasing a collection of works by Iranian and Arab modern artists in an exhibition titled “The Sea Suspended. [...] features artists from around the Arab world, including Egypt, Iraq, North Africa, the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. [...] This is the first time that an exhibition of Arab art from the modern period has been showcased in Iran.

The audience was media personnel and journalists gathered at a press conference Thursday, 13 October, at the Conrad Hotel in Cairo to witness the launch of the first Chocolate Festival, organised by the Swiss Embassy in Egypt. One visiting guest in particular was celebrated on the occasion: renowned Swiss chocolatier Romain Leemann who is visiting Egypt for the first time to participate in a series of events that aim to make Egyptians more acquainted with aspects of Swiss culture.

Social media is, of course, not the sole, or even the most important, cause of this failure. But we argue that social media challenges democratic consolidation by accelerating and intensifying dangerous trends such as polarization, fear and dehumanization of rivals. The speed, emotional intensity and echo-chamber qualities of social media content make those exposed to it experience more extreme reactions.