The Islamic State (IS) released a video showing its beheading of an American citizen, James Wright Foley, and its threatening to execute another, Steven Joel Sotloff, if U.S.-authorized military operations against the group continue.

UPDATE: Al-Hayat Media Center and remaining Islamic State accounts on Diaspora accounts have been taken down.

Al-Hayat Media Center, the Islamic State's (IS) English media arm, released a video on August 19 showing the beheading of U.S. photojournalist James Foley, who was kidnapped in Syria in November 2012. The video, titled "A Message to America," was disseminated and promoted on Diaspora, a social media website, and also threatened to kill Steven Sotloff, another U.S. journalist held prisoner by IS since August 2013.

Over the past few weeks, the world has gotten its first look at how the Islamic State (IS) Caliphate would function, and it has not been a pretty sight.

On August 16, 2014, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released an English-language publication calling for lone wolf jihadi attacks, targeting American, British, and Israeli interests. Among the most striking new elements in the publication, titled "Palestine: Betrayal of the Guilty Conscience," is the introduction of new attack targets for lone wolves in the United States and the United Kingdom within its reissue of AQAP's 2010 car bomb manual, "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom."

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a new English-language publication inciting for car bombs and provided a list of Western targets for jihadists to attack. The publication, entitled "Palestine: Betrayal of the Guilty Conscience" and posted on Twitter on August 16, 2014, contains Gaza-related articles from previous issues of AQAP's "Inspire Magazine" and speeches from al-Qaeda (AQ) leaders inspiring lone-wolf attacks against U.S. and global interests.