.. [R]eal aid requires more than just good intentions, and a snapshot of the realities that all too often lie behind the heartwarming imagery and simplistic appeals to compassion used by aid advocates when selling the work of their vast global industry to the public.

Following his speech [to Congress], Pope Francis has reportedly chosen to skip a number of invitations to dine with members of congress, including Speaker of the House John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Instead, he has opted to spend his lunch both serving, and eating with members of Washington’s homeless community.

"Who is Xi Dada?" was created by the People's Daily, often described as a "mouthpiece" of the Communist Party. The video itself is a list of compliments from doe-eyed foreign students who appear to be studying in Beijing. President Xi is described by the students as "a wise and resolute president", "super charismatic" and "not only a businessman, but also a family man".

Cultural exchange between skaters in the U.S. and other countries can help improve relations between nations from the bottom up, according to Neftalie Williams, Cuba Skate’s Chair and Research Director at USC Annenberg’s Institute of Sports, Media and Society. Williams compared the potential of skate diplomacy with the role that ping-pong played in restoring U.S.-Chinese relations in the early 1970’s.

He plans to practice “culinary diplomacy” while navigating the variety of customers Sodexo has to serve, including lawmakers, staffers and tourists.“Johanna Mendelson Forman, she has a whole class at American University, she started at [Johns] Hopkins, about conflict cuisine, of how food can unite folks who culturally may be different,” Fimbres said, explaining his philosophy toward food.

This is Conflict Café, a month-long pop-up restaurant that uses food as a vehicle for dialogue on conflict and peace building. Organized by London-based peace building charity International Alert, each week of the pop-up brings a new chef and cuisine from the many regions in which the organization works. 

In his first major address during a 10-day trip combining visits to the long-isolated but neighboring nations of Cuba and the United States, Pope Francis on Sunday gave a wide-ranging treatise on the Christian call to be at service to one another. [...] [T]he pope continued: "Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people."