Germany's foreign minister has said the Bundestag resolution recognizing the 1915 massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide is "non-binding," following media reports the German cabinet would disavow the resolution so as to continue using Turkey's Incirlik airbase.

"The German parliament naturally has the right and the freedom to pass any resolution it likes, but the Bundestag itself has said that not every resolution is legally binding," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was quoted by Reuters as saying on Friday.

Earlier in the day, Spiegel said in an unsourced report that the Foreign Ministry and the Chancellery are likely to give cabinet spokesman Steffen Seibert the green light to make a public statement distancing the government from the resolution.

"There can be no talk of the German government distancing itself from the Armenia resolution," Seibert told reporters at a planned news conference shortly after the magazine broke the news. He also said the resolution is not legally binding.

The resolution, adopted by German MPs on June 2, formally calls the 1915 massacre of ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish forces "genocide." The vote was almost unanimous, and was met with delight by Armenian communities worldwide.

Leaked emails are filling in the picture of a Bill-and-Hillary-Clinton plan to destroy Russia - a plan which had originated with US President George Herbert Walker Bush in 1990, and which has been followed through both by his son George W Bush, and by both of the Clintons, but which has only recently started to become documented by leaked publications of personal communications amongst the key operatives who were the insiders running this operation behind the scenes, and who include Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George W Bush, Victoria Nuland, Jeffrey Feltman, Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman al-Saud, and the Emir of Qatar.

This operation came out into public view only briefly when the news site Zero Hedge headlined on 6 October 2015 'Saudi Clerics Call For Jihad Against Russia, Iran' and linked to a number of sources, including to a Wall Street Journal report the day before, which simply ignored the Saudi involvement and headlined 'US Sees Russian Drive Against CIA-Backed Rebels in Syria', as if this matter were merely a US-vs-Russia issue, not an issue involving the Saud family at all. By contrast, the Zero Hedge article closed with "'This is a real war on Sunnis, their countries and their identities,' said the statement [by the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which is based in Qatar, whose ruling family, the Thanis, work closely with the Saud family]. It urged the rebels to join a 'jihad against the enemy of God and your enemy, and Muslims will back you every way they can.'" As a British news-site for jihadists put the matter, "According to experts, by issuing this statement they seek to encourage Saudi, Gulf, and Muslim youths to fight against Russian forces, similar to the recruitment of young fighters during the Afghan-Soviet war." (That joint US-Saudi operation, which was assisted by the Pakistani military and by Pakistan's heavily-Saudi-influenced Islamic clergy, was the brainchild of Saudi Prince Bandar and of the born Polish aristocrat Zbigniew Brzezinski, and its success at breaking up the Soviet Union is an enduring topic of pride for today's jihadists.) On 5 October 2015, the British mainstream 'news' site Reuters had called these "Saudi opposition clerics", and alleged that they "are not affiliated with the government", but Reuters's statement (especially that these were "Saudi opposition clerics") was simply false, and even ridiculously false, likely an outright lie, because Saudi laws don't allow any "opposition clerics", especially not Islamic ones, since those would be executed for publicly questioning the legitimacy of the country's rule by the royal Saud family, which is what an "opposition cleric" in Saudi Arabia would, by definition, be doing, if any of them existed there and hadn't been executed yet. The pretense, by Reuters, that Saudi Arabia is a religious-freedom country, is an insult to their readership, but this falsehood helps to keep their readership thinking that somehow the West can be allied with the Sauds and yet still call itself 'democratic' and allied only with 'democratic' governments, not with some of the world's worst tyrannies. Realism in foreign affairs (such as to acknowledge that some of the world's worst regimes are our government's allies) is fine, but it can't include lying to one's own public, because that necessarily entails misinforming the voters on the basis of which any actual democracy receives its very legitimacy as being a democracy, which seems less and less what countries such as the US and UK are, at least after 9/11. A "democracy" and a "deceived public" cannot coexist in the same country - and, at least in the United States, a deceived public is what predominantly exists (as a consequence of a deceiving 'news' media).

European Council President Donald Tusk, Commission President Jean-Claud Juncker, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Slovak PM Robert Fico are in talks Friday (September 2) to set the critical agenda for the next EU summit amid growing divisions in the union.

Slovakia holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, so it falls to the country's Prime Minister Robert Fico to set the agenda for the upcoming EU summit on September 16. In a sign that Fico is leading the EU in a new direction, he has decided not to hold the summit in Brussels, but in his capital, Bratislava.

The significance of the location is crucial, as Slovakia is one of the Visegrad Group, along with the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland — all of whom are calling for a major rethink on the whole EU project. In a joint communique in July, the leaders of the four countries said:

"It's time for the Union to be more pragmatic, focused on the essentials and reforms. At the same time the EU must act with due consideration and solve the problems of citizens while respecting the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality as well as the role of the national parliaments."

US expansion of the anti-Russian sanctions is a signal to European partners that the policy towards Russia remains unchanged, Frants Klintsevich, the first deputy head of the Russian Federation Council Committee for Defense and Security, said.

"The United States has become convinced that it is impossible to influence Russia in such a way. First and foremost, the move is a signal to the U.S. European partners who are being clearly warned that the course towards Russia should remain unchanged," Klintsevich told TASS on Thursday.

According to Klintsevich, the United States has made another unfriendly step towards Russia. "The bridge over the Kerch Strait will be ready on time anyway despite all the sanctions, which the Americans are imposing on companies that are involved in the project," the Russian lawmaker said.

Russia and Turkey plan to sign a memorandum on the establishment of over $1 billion joint investment fund during the G20 forum in China's Hangzhou on September 4-5, Kirill Dmitriyev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said in an interview with Rossiya-24 television channel.

"We will be having important negotiations with Turkey," Dmitriyev said. "We will sign a memorandum of the formation of the joint Russian-Turkish fund on the sum of over $1 billion."

Dmitriyev earlier made a statement that the joint investments of the mooted Russia-Turkish fund could be launched starting in 2017.

Britain's departure from the European Union might prove fatal to international police efforts against terrorism, Europol's director Rob Wainwright told the German press.

Europol's latest regulations come into force in May 2017. But Westminster is yet to approve their use in Britain and Brussels fears Prime Minister Theresa May will soon pull Britain out of the European law agency too.

"The EU would sorely miss Great Britain's leadership and vast expertise in security questions," Wainwright told German newspaper Die Welt.

"The British are the strongest provider of intelligence to the Europol databases."

"Britain is extremely important for Europol's work, I hope the most effective solution is found so we can secure long-running cooperation," he added.

Marking the most bountiful fundraising month of Hillary Clinton's campaign to date, $143 million was raised in August. The total, to be shared with other Democratic groups, breaks a record set in 2008, when the Obama campaign raised a comparatively meager $66 million.

The staggering sum of $143 million was announced by Clinton's campaign on Thursday in a statement, the result of a summer-long schmoozing with donors on the East and West coasts.

"Thanks to the 2.3 million people who have contributed to our campaign, we are heading into the final two months of the race with the resources we need to organize and mobilize millions of voters across the country," said Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, according to The Hill. "These resources will help us to register and turnout millions of voters to elect progressive candidates across the country."

Companies building a multi-billion dollar bridge to link the Russian mainland with annexed Crimea, a project close to the heart President Vladimir Putin, were targeted by the United States in an updated sanctions blacklist on Thursday.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury added dozens of people and companies to the list, first introduced after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and expanded over its support for separatist rebels in the east of the country.

As well as multiple subsidiaries of Russian gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) and 11 Crimean officials, the Treasury named seven companies directly involved in the construction of the 19 km (11.8 miles) road-and-rail connection across the Kerch Strait, dubbed "Putin's bridge" by some Russians.

Chief among those were SGM-Most, a subsidiary of lead contractor Stroygazmontazh which is already under U.S. sanctions, and sub-contractor Mostotrest (MSTT.MM), one of Russia's biggest bridge builders.

Iranian news agencies are reporting that Iran and Russia have agreed to start building two nuclear power plants in Iran's southern city of Bushehr this month.

"Operations to build two new nuclear power plants in Bushehr will start on September 10 and it will take 10 years for the power [units] to be completed," Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on September 1, according to IRNA and Press TV.

Construction of the power plants will cost an estimated $10 billion, and when complete, they will save Iran about 22 million barrels of oil per year, he said.

Russia built the existing 1,000-megawatt reactor at Bushehr on the Gulf coast that came online in 2013.

In November 2014, it signed a "cooperation contract" to help build the two new reactors on the same site, along with plans to eventually construct nine reactors across Iran.

Under the deal, the total number of reactors at the Bushehr site could rise to five.

Democratic primary voters in South Florida's 23rd Congressional District ignored the Democratic National Committee scandal that has engulfed Debbie Wasserman Schultz and gave the incumbent a 56.46 percent win over her Democratic challenger, Tim Canova, who claimed 43.54 percent of the vote. Unfortunately for Canova, who had the backing of Senator Bernie Sanders and his supporters, Independents were not allowed to vote in this closed primary.

Wasserman Schultz will still have to compete against a Republican rival, Joe Kaufman, in the November 8 general election. Her District is heavily Democratic, however, and she is expected to achieve an easy win - unless new scandals arrive between now and election day.

Canova is a law professor at Nova Southeastern University. This was his first endeavor in running for public office. His strong showing in this race and his ability to raise $3.3 million from predominantly small donors around the country suggests that voters have not heard the last from Tim Canova.