Don't get me wrong. Venezuela is a great country, with friendly people and breathtaking natural beauty. There are Caribbean beaches and snow-capped mountains in the Andes. We should take a road trip: Gasoline costs just 1 cent a gallon. But you might have trouble buying a new car. At the very least, you'll need patience. Soldiers, police officers, and government officials have first dibs.

Israel needs a more unified public diplomacy policy, Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee chairman Yoel Razbozov (Yesh Atid) said Tuesday. Following a meeting with government offices and NGOs dealing with hasbara (public diplomacy), Razbozov appointed MK Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid) to coordinate with them ways to work together to improve Israel’s image in the world.

The EU's student exchange scheme, Erasmus, has reached its 3 millionth participant since the programme was set up in 1987, the European Commission said on Monday (8 July). The statistics also show that in the academic year 2011-2012, more than 250,000 students went to study abroad or take up a job training for six months.

Suddenly, South America’s leftist presidents, whose hemispheric influence had been waning of late, found their mojo again. They rushed breathlessly to Bolivia to greet Morales, who shouted, “United we will defeat American imperialism!” while calling for the closure of the U.S. embassy there. By Friday evening, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in need of a political boost after just barely winning a special April election to succeed his mentor, the late Hugo Chávez, formally offered the “young American” Snowden asylum from “persecution from the empire.”

The Brazilian government, under pressure to improve public health services, has dropped plans to import a contingent of Cuban doctors and is instead looking to hire physicians in Spain and Portugal, the Health Ministry said on Monday. The plan to bring in Cuban doctors created a backlash because of questions about their qualifications. Brazilian medical associations argued that standards at Cuba’s medical schools were lower than in Brazil and equivalent in some cases to a nursing education.

The African Development Bank last week became the first multilateral lender to publish its data through the International Aid Transparency Initiative. After disclosing on July 1 data on both its public and private sector activities as well as providing precise geocoded information, AfDB joined the ranks of over 160 development organizations that seek to improve transparency on aid spending to make more effective in fighting poverty with IATI.

Giant pandas are not only one of China's most visible symbols, but are probably the country's biggest brand. One third of all tourist revenues in the province of Sichuan come from pandas, putting the equivalent of $16bn into the government's coffers.

On 12 July, Malala will be joined by hundreds of students from more than 80 countries in a unique Youth Assembly, where diplomats will take a back seat as young people take over the UN. They will gather to issue a global call for quality education for all. Education is a fundamental right, a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and crucial to mutual understanding and global citizenship. Many of us did not have to learn this lesson from a book. We lived it.