Public diplomacy is perception. Remarkably—and, unthinkably, as recently as one year ago—today China seems to be the world’s most likeable superpower. [...] Li, who landed in Berlin on Wednesday, hoped to use his three-day trip, with stops in Germany and Belgium, to “voice support for an open economy, free trade and investment [and] global regional peace and stability."  Trump, on the other hand, failed to support NATO, decried Germany as “very bad” for its trade policies, and even pushed aside Montenegro’s prime minister to the front of a group photo. 

The UN General Assembly elected Kuwait, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Peru and Poland to the UN Security Council on Friday for a two-year term beginning next year, ASharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported Saturday.Kuwait, which will replace Egypt in the seat representing the Arab world, received 188 votes out of the 193-member General Assembly. During the membership campaign that it launched in 2016, Kuwait pledged to adopt balanced policies in dealing with the issues on the agenda of the Security Council.

President Donald Trump's decision to remove the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement is yet another manifestation of how he continues to see U.S. interests as narrowly economic. Had the president a more expansive view of both the nation's interests and influence, he would have kept the U.S. in the accord. Instead, he not only harmed global efforts to address a pressing problem, but also deprived the U.S. of an important source of so-called soft power. In a world in which military might is increasingly difficult and costly to use, America will suffer from this loss. 

Kim Young-tae, a Korean transport policy expert, on Thursday was named secretary general of the International Transport Forum (ITF), an intergovernmental body under the OECD. It is the first time a Korean has been named to a director position of A7, the highest among grades that range from A1 at the OECD. [...] "Well, Korea as a country has been spotlighted for its rapid development. It rose from the ashes of war. Many countries want to learn how Korea built its top-notch transportation infrastructure in such a short amount of time." He said

In Singapore's botanic gardens this morning, an orchid will be named after the Prime Minister and his wife Lucy in the tradition of naming a hybrid of the national flower after visiting leaders. [...] Tonight, Mr Turnbull will give the keynote address to the Asia Security summit — more commonly known as the Shangri-La dialogue. Delegates from more than 50 countries will be in the audience. [...] The Economist dubbed the incident the "Shangri-La dust up". Security will be intense and Singaporeans have already been warned to avoid anything that could be deemed suspicious. 

The biggest box office stars don’t always hail from the US, they come from other places, too. Beyoncé, the internationally famous and quite possibly most talked-about woman in the world, has about 14.7 million Twitter followers. She’s ranked at, roughly, the 119th most popular person on Twitter. Shakira, the Colombian-born pop star, has a whopping 45.2 million Twitter followers. She’s about 18th on the Twitter popularity scale. [...] This is not to say that American movie stars are not popular, it's just that the Hollywood's near monopoly for almost a century is lo longer in effect. 

Ukraine’s bid to eventually join the European Union wins a critical vote, a victory in its war against Russia and for democratic values. [...]  At a time when three major countries are pulling away from Europe, Ukraine’s eagerness to embrace the EU and its values shows how much other countries want in. [...] For others outside the EU, however, the allure is a deeper theme, that of civic values such as equality and openness. And they are willing to make big sacrifices to join the Continent’s biggest club.