Can a building that meets rigorous security standards also be beautiful, and if so, at what cost? Modern embassy design revolves around this question. [...] Yet embassies aren't just meant to shield Foreign Service officers from harm. They are also the face the United States presents to the world. For many people, it's the first point of contact with its government, and a visual key to American values.

France is this year’s top soft power, according to a report published Tuesday. The Soft Power 30, published by PR firm Portland Communications, ranks countries on their exercise of soft power — the ability to influence others through attraction and likability rather than coercion.

The Soap Factory is excited to partner with Kutilvera to bring four emerging and mid-career Minnesota-based artists to Tranås, Sweden, to participate in a month-long residency at their organization. This residency is about time and place, an opportunity to reflect and cultivate ideas through experience and exchange. Artists will be given opportunities to learn about their host city, meet other artists, and space to work independently or collaboratively in their studios.

Young amputees in some of the poorest parts of the world will be able to navigate rough terrain to access jobs and opportunities with the help of new, specially developed prosthetic knees, after a non-profit company received a grant from the UK government to develop its design. [...] D-Rev, a development company based in San Francisco, California, has been awarded around $100,000 (£76,280) in UK aid money to develop a polycentric, four-bar knee, which wearers will be able to use over uneven ground.

Mercer County will host five judges from Mongolia later this month to learn the ins and outs of the U.S. legal system. [...] Jamkhandi said host families are a significant ingredient of U.S.-sponsored exchange programs, allowing international professionals a “unique perspective of American life and culture. More importantly, home stays foster friendships, a key element in people-to-people diplomacy.”

The program, which began in 2011 and is funded by a State Department grant, brings groups of international coaches, sports administrators and mostly teenage athletes to the public university's campus in Fairfax County, Virginia. [...] Participants gain a deeper understanding of inclusion and diversity in athletics, organizers say, at the same time that they get a glimpse of American culture — specifically, American sports culture.