Natural disasters know no political boundaries. And that’s why international humanitarian relief flows so quickly, and in such great and humbling quantities, when hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis strike. But today, with Houston suffering as Mother Nature’s latest victim, will the world’s giving nations step-up and step-in to help American relief efforts?

A U.S. ban on its citizens travelling to North Korea has come into effect, at a time of heightened tensions over North Korean missile launches. The new rule was announced after U.S. student Otto Warmbier died after being released from prison in North Korea. The State Department said it was necessary "due to the serious and mounting risk" of detention.

Information campaigning in various forms is as old as politics itself, and nor is it the sole province of political bogeymen. Research shows that democracies are better than autocracies at influencing foreign public opinion, and businesses, politicians and states all use the mass media strategically for their information campaigns. The names we give a particular information campaign not only reflect our inferences about its aims; they can in fact amplify its power and advance its goals.