While Germany has grabbed most of the attention for its response to Europe's migrant crisis, little fjord-filled Norway has quietly emerged as one of the largest contributors of humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees.The oil-rich Scandinavian  country of 5 million has pledged $1.2 billion over the next four years for people who have fled Syria's nearly 5-year-old civil war.

Announcements made by the Russian news agency TASS confirmed that Beijing’s State Oceanic Administration (SOA) would prepare its seventh Arctic exploration mission later this year and would seek a partnership with Russia to conduct a joint exploration and research mission in the Arctic. 

For government agencies and NGOs that work to foster peace [...] video games are the obvious next step in the fight to reach new audiences and change minds. […] And quite apart from the large, established game market in North America, Europe, and Asia, the gaming population in some conflict zones around the world is large and growing.

Across America, sushi is getting reimagined, often in outlandish ways. […] But none of them are authentically Japanese — not even the beloved California roll […] A new program from the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will certify that Japanese restaurants operating outside the country uphold the values of traditional Japanese cuisine, known as washoku.

South Sudan’s education minister, John Gai is in Zimbabwe to plans to hiring of hundreds of its teachers and nurses to work in the young nation. The Zimbabwean Chronicle newspaper reported recently that Juba intends to hire 20,000 Zimbabwean graduates to work at internationally-paid rates equivalent to those given to United Nations staff.

The TEA Programme in Pakistan, sponsored by the US Department of State, has sent more than 150 Pakistani teachers to the United States since 2012. The programme has been designed to build on teachers’ existing expertise and equip them with a better understanding of lesson planning, methodology, and the use of technology in teaching. Programme participants develop these proficiencies, while also learning about diversity and culture in the United States.

German policymakers continue to believe that political and economic means of influence are more effective than violence, implying further development of soft-power tools, including digital diplomacy. They are also eager to develop more “networked” national and European foreign policies that take into account the activities and possible contributions of non-state actors.

Europe and Iran have common interests in several areas. In light of their historical and traditional bilateral relations as well as other positive sources, such as the existence of complementary economies, mutually-beneficial cooperation in the fields of energy and technology [...] through both collective and bilateral mechanisms, it is possible to actively pursue the struggle against the important threats such as terrorism, violence, extremism, drug trafficking.