Students in Syria have been discussing their education with their counterparts over in the UK on Skype, and both groups have learnt a great deal about their foreign peers.

When Rami Haki fled to Germany in early 2015, becoming an entrepreneur was the furthest thing from his mind […] he was also missing those foods that reminded him of home […] He decided to become Germany's first Syrian cheese-maker. […] When he told a Facebook group for Syrians in Germany about the cheese [...] "Many people wanted to order cheese," he says. "I didn't have enough for everyone."

Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday the U.S. would seek a significant boost in humanitarian aid for the global refugee crisis and would urge at least 10 more countries to offer resettlement programs.

A Syrian orchestra whose members have fled the country's civil war to different parts of the globe is reuniting in London for a rare concert which they say will show people another side of their country. The Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music, which includes musicians from different perspectives of Syria's war, will perform on June 25 with songwriter and producer Damon Albarn, frontman of the band Blur, and other guest performers.

The most recent cartoon on refugees by the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" is highly controversial. It depicts the drowned Aylan Kurdi as a sex offender - and many find this utterly tasteless.

While drinking tea by the Bosphorus a few days ago, I looked up and there sailing past me was the Moskva, a formidable-looking Russian missile cruiser returning home from its mission in support of Russia's Syrian pal, Bashar Assad. [...]Turkey possesses the political stability, economic vitality and military strength to play an ever greater role in its tumultuous region and beyond.

In her examination of cultural diplomacy, Von Maltzahn looks briefly at its relationship with ‘soft power’, with the Europeans developing structured programmes between the world wars, followed lately by China, but with few Arab countries taking the practice seriously, other than recently through satellite television channels.  Compared to Iran, Syria has had little desire to propagate its culture abroad.