“A World in Crisis—How Can Smart Power Make a Difference?” will focus on the diplomacy tools countries can use to improve international stability, [...] “It’s the cluster of things which make up soft power,” he said, “whether that’s public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, cultural relations, nation branding—whateever you want to call it—and how it can be used effectively.”

Mao Zedong was said to have been moved to tears when he watched an early performance of "The White-Haired Girl," an opera created to meet his call for rousing revolutionary art. And under President Xi Jinping, a revival is on the road, reinvented once more to appeal to a Communist Party leader's stringently ideological tastes.

Selma director Ava DuVernay is brining new cinema to our shores. This month, her distribution company, ARRAY, is releasing the South African coming-of-age drama Ayanda in theaters in Los Angeles and New York. Ayanda—starring Terry Pheto, star of the Oscar-winning South African indie Tsotsi—tells the story of a young woman who is willing to do anything to keep her father's legacy alive.

Cowboy-hat wearing Wellington Jighere from Nigeria crushed his English opponent 4-0 at the World Scrabble Championship in Australia to become first African to bag the word game's global title. Jighere, 32, was among more than 120 competitors who travelled to Perth for the World English-language Scrabble Players' Association Championship, which culminated in Sunday's  final against England's Lewis Mackay.

Overwhelmed by a massive influx of migrants, Sweden is approaching its fiscal and emotional limit and this "humanitarian superpower" is now being forced to hit the brakes.

When Armand Diangienda picks up an instrument that he has never played, he looks for its hidden rule. That skill [...] was crucial twenty years ago, when he started the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra, in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2014, they travelled to the U.K. to perform with several ensembles, including the BBC Concert Orchestra, in a tour of English cities.

The Liberals ran on a promise to reset Canada’s image on the world scene, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has selected the party’s former leader Stéphane Dion to do it. Dion is Canada’s new foreign minister, one of the highest-profile jobs in Trudeau’s new cabinet. The Montreal MP takes over the top diplomatic job as the Liberals attempt to bring a new tone not only in Ottawa, but to Canada’s international voice.

Mario Gonzalez is from Pro Mexico, the Mexican government's trade and investment agency that organized [a Mexican Design pop-up showroom in central London]. "Tonight is our first ever showroom with Mexican designers," he says. "The idea is to position Mexican designers in the UK. They're very well known in the States or other areas, but not in Europe.