China's economic growth has begun to flatten out, so it has sought to evolve from manufacturing to service. And professional soccer [...] is a service. In a country newly rich and besotted by Western luxury goods, the sport has become a paradigm of sorts for embracing and importing foreign commodities. Only in this case, those commodities aren't yachts or Ivy League educations, but rather soccer players.

Brazil launched its occupation strategy in 2008, the year after it won the right to host the 2014 World Cup and a year before Rio won its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics […] human-rights campaigners argue that armed conflict has increased as a result of major sporting events, imposing a particularly high cost on poor and homeless children.

The President of PRCAN, John Ehiguese, who led his team to receive a delegation from Brand South Africa in Lagos, said there were learnings that Nigeria could draw from the strategies deployed by Brand South Africa in its own destination branding programme [...] there were salient opportunities for Nigeria to consider arising from the successful nation branding of South Africa.

Sweden has launched a tourism campaign encouraging people all over the world to call Swedes at random. The country has set up a phone number for the calls.

Given Trump's increasing erratic foreign policy positioning, the fact that he remains a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination is sending shockwaves around the world. And this is damaging the reputation of the United States (so-called ‘Brand America') internationally. 

It's 9:30 on a Thursday night and Chinese and foreign jazz fans descend on the JZ Club in Shanghai's former French Concession. Glasses clink and the splashing sound of cymbals ripple through a cabaret setting bathed in soft red light. Andrew Field, an American historian, says clubs like JZ represent a return to Shanghai's cosmopolitan past.

[...] American ambassador to the Dominican Republic in November 2013, Wally Brewster got [...] advice from the Vatican’s envoy [...] “If you keep your private life behind the walls of your embassy, you’ll be O.K. here" [...] He meant that Mr. Brewster, to be an effective diplomat, would be wise to keep his husband, Bob Satawake, out of sight in a country where prejudice against gay people remains widespread.

The 32-hundred seats in Mexico's Metropolitan theater are all taken by local fans of Korean culture. [...] A dynamic taekwondo demonstration excites athletes and fans in a country with two-million practitioners. The fun reaches its peak with a performance by K-pop superstars, Infinite. After an hour filled with harmony, President Park greeted the local audience in Spanish.