Germany and the United States sought on Sunday to restore vital ties badly frayed by a spying row which led to the expulsion of the CIA station chief in Berlin. Secretary of State John Kerry emerged from talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier to offer reassurances that the two vital transatlantic allies remain "great friends". In a bid to lighten the atmosphere and use sports diplomacy, Kerry even wished his counterpart "good luck" in Sunday's football World Cup final when Germany will take on Argentina.

“Migrants from everywhere, entrenched along the rail ties. Far away from where they come, further away from where they go,” singer Eddie Ganz croons in Spanish over the Caribbean beat of the marimba, a wooden xylophone-like instrument from Guatemala.  The song, and others like it, are part of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection campaign to deterring illegal immigration to the United States.

After hours spent performing cartwheels, American show tunes and a series of jazzy dance routines in a cramped studio on West 28th Street in Manhattan, 8-year-old Futaba Kawakami left TADA Youth Theater camp earlier this week, clammy and slightly hoarse. She pulled off her new camp T-shirt, the one with the slogan Sing! Dance! Act! emblazoned on the back, and marshaled enough energy to ask her mother for ice cream.

When reports emerged that tens of thousands of children had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border by themselves since October, Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, proposed legislation to freeze most U.S. foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where the majority of the children come from, and also Mexico for letting the children through. Joined by 11 other members of Congress, Weber said the bill would hold these countries accountable for the unprecedented number of undocumented children flowing north into the United States. 

It is hard to think of two countries that have more in common than Australia and Britain. We share a language and a rich history – and, in the main, a sense of humour. We are both maritime trading nations. Australia inherited many fine British institutions including parliamentary democracy and the common law. Yet, as a recent Lowy Institute poll demonstrates, too often the relationship is focused on the past rather than the future, on sentiment rather than shared interests. More than eight in 10 Australians see the Australia-Britain bilateral relationship as important. 

While U.S. and Iranian negotiators labor to reach a long-term nuclear agreement, other Americans and Iranians are stepping up contacts in a new wave of people-to-people diplomacy. In recent months, three American religious delegations have visited Iran while the first group of female Iranian seminary students came to the United States. Sports exchanges are also on the rise again,spearheaded by American wrestlers who find far more numerous and passionate fans in Iran than in many countries, including the U.S.