World leaders are arriving for the NATO Summit held at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport. The summit has been marked by protests and one of the largest security operations to ever take place on British soil. Ukraine and Islamic State will top the agenda.

RIA Novosti: NATO Has No Plans to Consider New Members During Upcoming Summit in Wales

The French government has come under heavy criticism after the country’s labor minister said job seekers need to be punished if they are found to be committing frauds on the state aid. ● On Tuesday, France’s Labour Minister François Rebsamen called on the public employment offices called Pole Emploi to crack down on benefit claimants “abusing the system". “I’m asking Pole Emploi to strengthen its controls to make sure that people are indeed looking for work. At some point, there needs to be a penalty.” He has been criticized by many who believe the problem is not the unemployed but the unemployment. “Rebsamen’s comments are scandalous and indecent,” said Jean-Francois Kieffer, a senior CGT labour union official on Tuesday. “This is not the solution,” Frances' Minister for State Reform Thierry Mandon said. “Punishing jobseekers is not the way to solve the fundamental problem of unemployment. The focus should be on creating jobs,” Mandon added.

Le Monde: Les « sans-dents» immédiatement récupérés par les militants de tout bord || Tous des «sans-dents». L'expression que François Hollande emploierait pour désigner les pauvres, selon son ex-compagne Valérie Trierweiler, semble appelée à connaître le même succès que le «casse-toi pauv'con» de son prédécesseur [Nicolas Sarkozy]. Sur les réseaux sociaux, plusieurs groupes militants, de gauche comme de droite, ont immédiatement saisi le potentiel de la phrase et s'en sont emparés avec une rapidité qui force l'admiration. Quelques heures à peine après les premiers extraits de l'ouvrage de Mme Trierweiler, on comptait déjà au moins deux mouvements distincts.

The delivery of first Mistral-class helicopter carrier, built for Russia under the 2011 contract, has not been put off yet, as the statement made earlier on Wednesday reflected personal position of President Francois Hollande, a French diplomatic source said Wednesday. ● “From the legal standpoint, nothing has changed; the delivery is due November 1. It is a matter of president’s political stance. The head of state said that in the current circumstances, as of today - and if these circumstances do not change – he would not approve delivery of the Mistral,” the source said. Hollande’s position remains the same, according to the diplomatic source. Russia has to undertake the steps essential to reach a political solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine to receive the Mistral warships on time. “The final decision will be made in October following a number of procedures,” the diplomatic source added. Earlier on Wednesday, the office of President Francois Hollande released a statement, saying that the head of the country concluded that the conditions, under which France could authorize the delivery of the first helicopter carrier are not in place.

Le Monde: La France suspend la livraison du premier Mistral à la Russie
The Saker ■ Pauvre, pauvre France!

Two more NATO warships - Canada’s frigate Toronto and Spain’s frigate Almirante de Burbon - are expected to reach the Black Se on September 6. ● NATO’s warship group in the Black Sea has reach three as the French Navy Ship Commandant Birot entered the Black Sea on Wednesday, a military diplomatic source told ITAR-TASS on Thursday. Earlier, the website of the United States Sixth Fleet commander said the U.S. destroyer Ross had entered the Black Sea. “Both ships have passed through Bosphorus and entered the Black Sea in a perios between 21:00 and 22:00 Moscow time,” the source said. Currently, France’s ship Dupuy le Lome is currently staying in the Black Sea. She is to leave it on September 5. Two more NATO warships - Canada’s frigate Toronto and Spain’s frigate Almirante de Burbon - are expected to reach the Black Se on September 6. According to the website of the United States Sixth Fleet commander, “Ross’ presence in the Black Sea serves to demonstrate the United States’ commitment to strengthening the collective security of NATO allies and partners in the region.” “The ship is scheduled to work alongside NATO allies and partners in the region during its time in the Black Sea, enhancing interoperability and improving regional security,” the website says. In line with the Montreaux Convention, warships of non-littoral states cannot stay in the Black Sea for more than 21 days.

Documents reveal contacts between Washington and Jerusalem in late 1960s, when some Americans believed the nuclear option would not deter Arab leaders but would trigger an atom bomb race. ● The Obama administration this week declassified papers, after 45 years of top-secret status, documenting contacts between Jerusalem and Washington over American agreement to the existence of an Israeli nuclear option. The Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP), which is in charge of approving declassification, had for decades consistently refused to declassify these secrets of the Israeli nuclear program. ● The documents outline how the American administration worked ahead of the meeting between President Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Golda Meir at the White House in September 1969, as officials came to terms with a three-part Israeli refusal – to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty; to agree to American inspection of the Dimona nuclear facility; and to condition delivery of fighter jets on Israel’s agreement to give up nuclear weaponry in exchange for strategic ground-to-ground Jericho missiles “capable of reaching the Arab capitals” although “not all the Arab capitals.” ● The officials – cabinet secretaries and senior advisers who wrote the documents – withdrew step after step from an ambitious plan to block Israeli nuclearization, until they finally acceded, in internal correspondence – the content of the conversation between Nixon and Meir is still classified – to recognition of Israel as a threshold nuclear state.

The government asked the judge to hold Microsoft in contempt. — "If Microsoft refuses to comply, the Court could find Microsoft in contempt, which would be a final order subject to appellate review," the judge wrote. Microsoft said Tuesday that "Everyone agrees this case can and will proceed to the appeals court. This is simply about finding the appropriate procedure for that to happen." The judge's original July ruling endorsed the US government's position that it should be able to access the world's servers. "It is a question of control, not a question of the location of that information," Preska ruled. That is a position that Microsoft and other companies contend is wrong. The companies maintain that the enforcement of US law stops at the US border.

30. august 2014 ble det kjent at NATO planlegger å opprette en ny, mobil styrke på inntil 10.000 soldater, der det legges opp til at også Norge skal være med. Nyheten ble sluppet av Financial Times, og steigan.no var første norske medium som brakte nyheten. Det var ikke meningen at Norges innbyggere skulle få vite noe om denne styrken før den ble banket i NATO, men da saka først sprakk, sa statssekretær Øystein Bø i forsvarsdepartementet at de "konsulterte Stortinget før ministermøtet i juni".

Islamic State militants killed up to 770 captured Iraqi soldiers after they captured a former US military base in Tikrit back in June, a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday. ● Three new mass execution sites have been discovered at the Camp Speicher air base near the Iraqi city of Tikrit, the international human rights group HRW stated in its report, bringing the total number of sites to five. According to HRW, the massacres were carried out by militants of the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS or ISIL) following the siege of the city, located about 190 kilometers north of Baghdad. The report states that the hardline Islamist group killed anywhere between 560 and 770 men during the slaughter, most of them believed to be Iraqi security forces serving at the former US base.

PressTV: ISIL massacres about 800 captured troops in Iraq: HRW