The BBC World Service has outlined plans to increase the number of languages in which it broadcasts from 29 to 40 – in a drive to reach half a billion people across the world by 2022. It is the biggest expansion of the broadcaster in more than 70 years, and a signal that Britain aims to exercise its soft power more vigorously.

Beginning Saturday, the BBC World Service is trying something new. Or, at least, newer. A new weekly radio and digital program, "World Hacks," will look at the problems facing the world along with the people who are trying to fix them. [...] Instead, "World Hacks" focuses on those problems and their solutions.

The expansion is a result of a funding injection of 289 million pounds ($360 million) until 2020 announced by the government last year. The boost reversed a previous decision to cut World Service funding and was part of a broader strategy to increase Britain’s ‘soft power’.

State-run broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) officially launched its first English-language channel TRT World late Tuesday. [...] Speaking at the gala, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wished success to the channel and said: "I believe TRT World will be Turkey's window to the world".