A conference themed “Fight against the plundering of Syria’s cultural heritage” organised by the Norwegian Embassy to Bulgaria, was officially opened in the Bulgarian capital city Sofia on Wednesday. "Nowadays, more than ever, we need united and decisive measures to suspend what we call purposeful destruction of history, which we are currently witnessing,” the minister remarked.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry is rolling out a new kind of diplomacy, which includes a netball team, the Cook Islands and $50,000 of taxpayer money. The cash will come from the Public Diplomacy Fund, allowing New Zealand's national development squad to play a series of tests in Rarotonga to mark the 50th anniversary of the Cook Islands' independence. 

We need to tell our story, which has been hijacked and trampled upon – that most inspirational story of Zionism. The story of the Jewish people coming back to their own land has been swept away. We need to reclaim it.” Aharoni, while agreeing that BDS can’t be ignored, cautions against using all of Israel’s hasbara (public diplomacy) ammunition in battling the accusations and campaigns against it.

With the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reaching the end of their lifespan, attention now turns to September's launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN General Assembly. Although the MDGs were partly successful, the consensus is that the world appears to have changed so much in the past 15 years that many of the assumptions and approaches are no longer relevant.