The Obama administration is taking its fight against ISIS to Hollywood, consulting with some of the world’s best storytellers for tips on how to win the battle for hearts and minds. [...] The outreach is part of a revamped administration strategy to counter ISIS’s magnetic pull for some young people in the Middle East and beyond, working with local partners, establishing a new Washington-based communications center and, now, drawing on the deep well of movie maker experience. 

Schiff, a Greenwich native now living in Weston, is to leave Tuesday on her second humanitarian mission to the Greek island of Lesbos, the gateway through which most refugees from the Middle East and Sudan enter the European Union. Michael Borrero, a Greenwich Hospital nurse, will accompany her.

The historic meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Patriarch Kirill, which took place in Havana on Friday, could act as a soft force contributing to the resolution of the Syrian crisis, experts told Sputnik.

In the course of the visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Egypt on January 20-22, 2016, Egypt and China announced a five-year, multi-sector cooperation agreement. [...] On a symbolic level, Egypt and China also declared 2016 as “the Egyptian-Chinese cultural year.”

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.

The broadcast of video footage prepared by extremist groups is on the increase. Every gruesome act is accompanied by a video tape or posting online describing those who carried it out and explaining why. What most social scientists and media analysts are asking is, to whom is the message directed?

The Obama Administration has announced a new communications effort to counteract the “messaging” of ISIS. The new “Center for Global Engagement,” to be located at the State Department, will be charged with “counter-messaging” ISIS (ISIL) communications. The task of the center can be simply stated: to persuade those who might follow ISIS or other terrorist groups that following them is a very wrong idea. 

When Rami Haki fled to Germany in early 2015, becoming an entrepreneur was the furthest thing from his mind […] he was also missing those foods that reminded him of home […] He decided to become Germany's first Syrian cheese-maker. […] When he told a Facebook group for Syrians in Germany about the cheese [...] "Many people wanted to order cheese," he says. "I didn't have enough for everyone."