It's a crisis that has spiraled out of control with more than 65 million people now called refugees around the globe. As hundreds of young socially conscious innovators from around the globe meet in the Silicon Valley this week with investors seeking to back their projects at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), one unique organisation is seeking to tackle the unfolding disaster by reframing the entire way those fleeing their countries because of war or persecution are treated.

Now, acting as the US State Department's Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Stengel sat down with AJ+ presenter Dena Takuri on Wednesday to discuss the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES). The gathering brings together more than 1,000 young innovators, investors, and government officials with the goal of establishing socially and environmentally conscious businesses around the world.

Millions of people across the world are marking the second International Yoga Day on June 21. The brainchild of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is an enthusiastic yoga practitioner himself, the UN-sponsored day has been endorsed by an unprecedented 175 countries, including Qatar.

Visitors from around the world flock to the Met to view art history’s great masterpieces and attend fashionable galas, but to negotiate international relations is surely a first. New York’s premier museum recently became the unlikely venue for a high-security, invite-only meeting organized by Samantha Power [...] Mixing business with pleasure, the U.S. ambassador invited key international diplomats to tour the museum’s newest exhibition of Islamic art.

On 31 July 2015, Tom Fletcher, the outgoing British ambassador to Lebanon, signed off with an open letter on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website to the country he had served in for four years, titled “So . . . Yalla, Bye”. [...] The blog went viral and generated much discussion in Lebanon.

At its core, the exhibit offered a window into how Arab cultures create identity using social codes and physical structures, while also highlighting how people and artists must take care to change their behavior in certain regimented contexts. "Art is a part of Iranian culture, and in the process of researching this show..."

Surprisingly, some of these leaders, particularly in Russia and China, have been wielding a sophisticated and deceptive soft power beyond their borders that is proving more enduring and effective than in the past. Their tactics are asymmetrical and subversive, using deception and disinformation, not easily confronted.

Several miles away, a flashier Pyongyang A Ri Rang Restaurant on soi (alley) 26 of Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road also offers food, but with the added fun of karaoke, a live floor show and tours of North Korea.