The Voice of America has its very own "mockumentary"-style comedy series – “English Off the Mic.” The program, by the VOA Mandarin Service, aims to teach American English and culture to viewers in China. The show's hosts/actors Lin Yang and Michael Bond and director Chenxing Zhang invite On Assignment's Alex Villarreal to a taping and tell her all about their fun approach to an important need.

For more than a decade, American public diplomacy has centered around Joseph Nye’s soft power approach. This approach is based on the assumption that nations can win global hearts and minds of foreign citizens by highlighting the attractiveness of its culture, political values, and foreign policy. To this end, public diplomacy officials have allocated billions of dollars into a variety of soft power programs such as cultural and educational exchanges, foreign aid and development, and English language instruction.

The end of the Cold War changed the nature and mission of international broadcasting. But Congress correctly saw a continued role for such broadcasting to serve U.S. foreign policy by delivering targeted news and information to places where local media still provide an incomplete picture at best and leave citizens unable to make informed decisions. After adding broadcasts from Radio Marti to Cuba in 1985, and TV Marti in 1990, Congress created the International Broadcasting Bureau in 1994. Then came Radio Free Asia in 1996 and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks in 2004.

There has never been a better time for diplomats to get into data and push the boundaries of what is imagined to be possible within public diplomacy. The amount of data available is greater than ever, perhaps 90% of which was generated in the last two years. At the same time, more people globally are communicating in ways that generate data which is publicly observable, for example through the API of social media platforms. Equally, the tools to analyse data have expanded rapidly, allowing users to search large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.

Thirty U.S. doctors and nurses from across the country were sworn in at the White House today as the first class of Peace Corps Global Health Service Partnership volunteers. The new volunteers will leave this weekend for one-year assignments as medical or nursing educators in Tanzania, Malawi and Uganda, where they will work alongside local faculty to train the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Eight wheelchair basketball athletes and four coaches from Turkey were able to engage firsthand in the disability sports culture in the United States, inspiring greater understanding of inclusion rights in sports. This wheelchair basketball exchange taught the Turkish athletes and coaches about equality for persons with disabilities in the United States, as well as the importance of teamwork and leadership skills.

MTV Latin America and the United Nations Secretary General´s UNITE to end Violence against Women presented the initiative “Be Brave not Violent”. The initiative is aimed at young people in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the objective inspiring young people in the region to become part of the solution to end violence against women.

In partnership with the International Youth Foundation (IYF), the Youth:Work project is working in eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to assess the needs and aspirations of young people, the hurdles they face in seeking employment, and the opportunities that can help them improve their lives and prospects. This holistic mapping exercise, called Youth:Map, is developed through interviews with business, community, government, and youth leaders.