family of steven sotloff sends a message directly to isis. where is your mercy. and president obama says russia threw out the law book when it comes to ukraine. and how two brothers were freed from prison. one was even on death row.

how the victim's family is responding. hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm max foster. the family of steven sotloff says isis militants have violated the rules of islam. they posted a video of sotloff being beheaded. a spokesman for the sotloff family addressed the media, speaking in arabic and asking al baghdady, where is your mercy. >> translator: you talk about the koran. fight those who fight you and do

not transgress. i do not have a sword in my hand, and i'm ready for your answer. >> meanwhile, the mother of james foley is offering her comfort to the sotloff family. >> i would hope that their deaths might not be in vain, that they might awaken the world, that we must act as a unified world. for peace and for goodness and just work together. >> well, u.s. president obama says his objective is clear, to degrade isis so it's no longer a threat to the middle east or the united states. he spoke on wednesday after meeting with leaders in estonia. senior white house correspondent

jim acosta reports. >> reporter: sporesponding to cs to get tough on isis -- >> our reach is long and justice will be served. >> reporter: a message echoed by vice president joe biden. >> we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice, because hell is where they will reside! >> reporter: the president declared at a news conference in estonia that he wants to wipe out the terror group. >> our goal is clear, to destroy isil so it's not just a threat to iraq but to the region and to the united states. >> reporter: then just a few breaths later, the president seemed to soften that goal. >> we continue to shrink isil's sphere of influence, its effectiveness, its financing,

its military capabilities to the point where it is a manageable problem. >> reporter: reporters were quickly told that that was only an acknowledgement that remnants of a smaller isis could still pose a future threat. it was mainly an attempt to cheap up the president's remarks. >> we don't have a strategy yet. >> reporter: after he admitted he didn't have a strategy. >> it is very important from my perspective that when we send our pilots in to do a job that weigh know that that is a mission that's going to work. >> reporter: pivoting to the crisis in ukraine, the president tried to reassure the smaller states of lithuania and latvia. >> you will never lose it again. >> reporter: in a veiled

reference to world war two, the president made it clear he's not buying moscow's denials. >> the aggression evoke dark tactics from europe's past that ought to be assigned to a distant history. >> reporter: to hammer that point, he met with u.s. forces who will be stepping up exercises in the region. >> thanks to all of you for accepting forward, for putting on a uniform, for serving in this mission which is so vital to the security of our nations. >> well, nato members are arriving now. obama arrived last night. it wasn't that long ago when a former defense secretary of state reported he took crossword puzzles. there was an op ed calling for stronger alliance reading in part, we meet in a time when the

world is facing dangerous and evolving challenges. to the east, rush twra has ripped up the rule book. do keep with cnn because our nick robertson will be speaking with david cameron later this hour. we will bring you that interview live. this summit in wales is one of the most closely watched. they need to ratchet up defense spending because russia already has. >> reporter: over the last five years, russia has increased its defense spending by 50% while on average, nato allies have decreased defense spending by 0%, and this is simply not sustainable. russia's illegal actions in ukraine are a wake up call, and it's time now to turn the corner, stop the cuts and gradually increase defense

investments. >> nato member france is suspending delivery of two warships to russia. the prospects for the cease-fire, ukrainian president poroshenko said progress was being made just about the same time russian president putin unveiled a peace plan of his own. we have more from kiev. you are dealing with all sorts of different messages yesterday, resa. what's the conclusion about what was reached yesterday? >> reporter: the confusion was over a phone conversation yesterday between president putin and the ukrainian president poroshenko. initially there were reports that the two had agreed to

establish a cease-fire which would have been good news, however, moscow quickly dismissed those reports, indicating that russia was not a party to this conflict and therefore mr. putin was not authorized to indicate any kind of cease-fire. then the two sides announced that they had agreed to a framework, the conditions under which a cease-fire would take place. and those conditions included the end of military operations in southeast ukraine, the pulling out of troops, the establishing of a humanitarian corridor where refugees and victims could get out and humanitarian aid could come in and international monitors put in place to ensure that these conditions were being met. yesterday with poroshenko with a positive message saying he's hopeful these conditions can be put in place as early as tomorrow when all sides of this conflict once again meet in belarus. however, late yesterday, prime

minister saying this -- perhaps there's a breakthrough for a cease-fire, and now all eyes on belarus tomorrow to see what happens there. >> and also, what about what's going on in wales with the nato summit? how crucial is that to what's going on in ukraine? >> reporter: i think it's critical. i think what kiev wants to hear and they're already hearing it, is that they have the fullbacking of nato and western capitals. they're asking for support. and seemingly they're getting it. nato, over the past couple days, has explicitly said they're considering expanding bases, capacity here in the region. they're also going to hold annual exercises in western ukraine that were initially

canceled in july. they're going to hold them later in september, however, this is important. many are going to see this as provocation to moscow. remember, moscow's ultimate overarching concern is nato's expansion over their borders. they're concerned nato is encoaching on their zone of security. that's why they're saying nato expansion could backfire. even so, it looks like it's happening. >> reza, thank you very much indeed. an interview with david cameron is coming up. his thoughts on isis and the crisis in ukraine. and as ebola affects another doctor, we hear from some of the people being treated for the virus. q.

now, according to the world health organization more than . three and a half thousand people have been infected by the ebola virus. dr. sacra was not treating

patients for ebola but delivering babies. one bright spot, a british doctor, william pooley has been discharged from the hospital. that was the day before nancy writebol spoke about her your deal -- ordeal for the first time. less than a month later, she spoke to anderson cooper about her ordeal. >> at what point did you start to feel something? >> i had gone to the isolation unit on the 22nd of july. i went home, and i called one of our doctors, and said, you know what, i'm not really feeling very good. i think i have malaria. on saturday, the doctors came in. they said nancy, we know you don't have ebola, but we're just

going to run the test anyway. you're not feeling better. you still have a fever, and we just want to make sure. we want to set everybody's mind at ease. >> until that moment, did you think it could possibly be ebola? >> no. it didn't worry me at all. >> even though you were working in a unit of ebola patients? >> yeah. and i mean, even now, i look back, and i don't really know how i got it. >> they said you know what, we're going to test you for ebola. >> uh-huh. so i said okay. and so they drew the blood, of course, and david came home pretty quickly, and he came into the room, and he said, nancy, i need to tell you some things. i said okay. and he said, kent has ebola, and i just, i was just sick. >> dr. brantley. >> yeah. when david told me.

and then after i kind of regrouped from that, and nancy, you do, too. and i remember, i could hear people at the front door. and i remember getting up and i remember that daifd wanted to put his arms around me, and of course i had fever, and i just said don't, don't. i don't want to you touch me, because, you know, touching -- who knows. and so i said. >> that must have been so hard. >> it was, and i said, but david, it's going to be okay. it's going to be okay. >> even though you had seen people die. i mean, you knew, it's not a -- as you said, it's a horrific death. people bleed out. it's, you had no doubt you were

survive. >> no. i didn't have any. >> he went on to ask if she'd go back to liberia. you can listen to her response by going to our web page. after decades in prison, two u.s. brothers are free. coming up, you'll hear from one of them, plus the family of the girl they were once convicted of killing. and david cameron will speak live here on cnn. hiring too much tie and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 30 of the web's leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer5.

two brothers in the united states are free after serving 30 years behind bashes. a court in the united states exonerated henry mccullom and his half brother leon brown. they'd been convicted of the rape and murder of a 11-year-old. but police found dna evidence cleared the men. >> a lot of joy, rejoicing, happiness and everything, because i was very anxious when they told me this news and stuff. i wanted to get away from this place. no anger in my heart. but i don't like what they did to me and my brother, because they took 30 years away for no reason. >> well, the victim's family still briefs the brothers had something to do with the murder. they say they're being forced to re-live a nightmare.

>> how do you get over something like this? how do you get over it? how? you never forget it. you have nightmares about it. you know, i have nightmares where i can't get to her in time. i feel like i'm trapped in hell. i feel like i'm in hell on earth. >> well, it's not immediately clear if a man who's dna was found will face charges in the murder. he's serving a life sentence for an unrelated crime. the u.s. department of justice is launching a review of the police department in ferguson, missouri. that's the midwestern american city where unrest broke out last month after a white officer shot and killed an african-american teenager, officials say the probe will look at whether law enforcement reach federal standards. this investigation is distinct from another federal review, specifically looking at the august 9th shooting to death of

18 year old michael brown. the remnants of tropical storm dolly are dumping flooding rains in mexico. ivan cabrera joins us from the weather center. >> flash flooding is going to be an issue today even as this moisture from dolly which made land fall a day and a half ago is still bringing rainfall. so far we've tallied 154 millimeters of rainfall. and still raining heavily. over the next couple days we'll continue to see that and then things will wind down. on the western side is a different story. here's hurricane norbert, torrential rain on the eastern side of norbert. but as it moves off to the north and west, it will leave mexico alone but will impact with baja here, and that is going to be an issue because we are going to be talking about very heavy rain and the potential for flooding

here as well as, well, hurricane will get its act together. it's about 100 miles per hour. so close enough to baja where the impacts will be significant and then eventually, likely becoming something post tropical here just to the south of san diego. but the moisture is going to stream up to the north. so you may be getting wet if the next couple days. as far as how much rainfall, additional rainfall, look at cabo san lucas. that's 4 inches. this area here, concerns here as a result of the topography and the hillsides. we have a potential for flooding but also the mudslide threat as well. so we'll be watching that closely. in the next half hour we'll take you to china where the flooding there is also an issue. and we'll check on the forecast for the u.s. on this thursday. max? >> ivan, thank you very much

indeed. coming up, prime minister david cameron joins us for a live interview as the nato summit gets underway in wales. plus, al qaeda is back in the news. where they say they are expanding, a live report just ahe ahead.

welcome back to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm max foster. in the headlines this hour, ukraine and russia are talking about ways to end the conflict. russian president putin proposed his open plan which ukraine rejected. but officials meet in belarus on friday. ahead of the nato summit

wales, president obama and david cameron are blaming russia for the crisis in the ukraine. we will speak to prime minister cameron in the next few minutes. the family of steven sotloff says isis islamists have violated the principle of islam. investigators are viewing every frame of the video trying to identify the man who beheaded steven sotloff. >> reporter: cnn has learned u.s. intelligence is doing a

forensic examination of the execution videos. they're looking at the man and his voice, facial features. it appears to be the same man in the sotloff video. notice the accent when he utters this phrase. >> you, obama -- >> reporter: compare it to a similar phrase -- >> any attempt, by you, obama. >> reporter: british officials had no comment when we asked if identification is imminent. >> the eyes are key. they're going to be looking at the shape, the supposed droop in all these frames. both on august 19 and september 2. >> reporter: during the iraqi war, they investigate every beheading video. in these videos, the tilt of the militant's head is significant and the way he holds his knife and the way he laces his goods.

he doesn't lace them the same way. he lays them up halfway, which is a very sort of sikh for an individual to do. >> reporter: but is this the man who really executed foley and sotloff? he doesn't think so. in both videos, the moment of death isn't shown. >> if you look at the videos at the very end, which, where they're holding up the next hostage, his ands are clean, and his tunic is clean, suggesting he didn't do it. >> reporter: as horrific as these videos are, analysts say they're actually a recruiting tool for isis. >> people with this extreme ideology have an almost pornographic attraction to this. isis can stand up the united states. it's a force to be reckoned with. >> reporter: and new information from u.s. officials about these

videos. they say they have determined that the sotloff video was shot separately and later than the foley video. so they were not shot in the same session. bryan todd, washington. the family of steven sotloff says he was the kind of person who always tried to help those less privileged than him. an afe a friend evof the family spoke about what he and sotloff's family has been going through. >> we're all in a state of shock. this is something we've been dealing with for a year now. until this actually became a reality, there's no words to really express how any of us feel. the best we can do is be very supporting and loving to each other and try to be there with the immediate family and friends and hopefully we'll be able to

get through this. >> well, isis grabbed headlines of late, al qaeda is also on the move. the group has announced the formation of a wing in india. how seriously is the government taking this? >> reporter: the government in india is taking this very, very seriously. cnn spoke with the indian ministry today, and they've issued a national security alert with the alert focussing on some of the states that al sawhat hery mentioned. and those states are in the east and in the north and in the west. all of which were mentioned and have had a history of hindu/muslim clashes. i should add that hindu/muslim clashes are pretty old in india.

they've been happening for many, many years. and they are by their nature very different than the kinds of terror that we've seen al qaeda unleash in many parts of the world. >> why is al qaeda attracted to india? >> reporter: there will two main reasons why. on the one hand, india has many muslims, 176 million muslims in india. but when you add in bangladesh and pakistan, that region, the indian sub continent has about half a billion muslims. the indian sub continent is a great area for al qaeda. the other reason, peter bergen told me, cnn security analyst, that isis in iraq and syria has squeezed al qaeda out of the picture, so if many ways this could be seen as a desperate

attempt on al qaeda's part to be relevant. and that's why they're looking at southeast asia. >> and intelligence useful for the government because it can respond while this is being established. how do you think india will respond? >> reporter: the government is taking this very seriously, but i should add, in india's many, many muslim, cnn reported recently that indian muslim groups have been recruited to fight against isis in iraq and syria. so it's hard to describe india's muslims. and al qaeda is going to struggle in many ways to try and make huge inroads into india. that said, the government will take this very seriously. i do want to point out, though, if you look at terrorism in south asia, most terrorist attacks tend to be maoist.

they are not going to unduly panic. >> thank you very much indeed. just ahead on the sidelines of the nato summit, our nick robertson will speak to david cameron. we'll be right back as soon as he arrives there.

welcome back. we have a rare conversation for you now with the man who knows isis from the inside. he defected from the terror group in syria just a few weeks ago, and he sat down recently with cnn. and we have to warn you that this exclusive report includes some graphic images. >> reporter: there is no sign here of the progressive city that this once was. now, the seat of power for isis. grew some crucifixions, public executions for anyone who

insults god. lashings for women who are not fully covered. beatings and impressisonment fo keeping a store open during worship time. the effect is felt not just here but everywhere across the so-called islamic state. there is a commission for the prohibition of fights. this man, a syrian in his 20s defected in isis less than two weeks ago and still agrees with the ideology of isis. >> translator: the main and principle goal is to establish an islamic state that will encompass the arab world. and after that, we go to the

other countries. >> reporter: raqqah is isis central command, taken over after other fighting groups have already kicked the syrian army out of military bases in the area. isis has now opened a logistics supply line. >> translator: raqqah is close to the border of iraq. and we saw already that weapons are going back and forth. >> reporter: several thousand are coming from western countries. >> we coming, and we will destroy you. >> reporter: heightening concerns across europe with the u.k. recently lifting its threat level. the security measures in those countries make it difficult. >> translator: since western fighters joined isis, they consider their home country as

infid els. >> reporter: it is also perhaps why a werner was chosen to front the horrific beheading of journalist james foley. >> translator: it is possible that the goal was to project the image that a european or western person executed an american so they can showcase their western members and appeal to others outside syria and make them feel that they belong to the same cause and that they, too, can do anything in support of isis in their respective countries. >> reporter: and there is also the internal indoctrination of innocent minds. of of of of establishing more and morris la-- more islamic schools. >> many subjects have been canceled, like music and sports.

all of them have been canceled from the school curriculum. >> reporter: there is fear among the people, he admits, among those who don't subscribe to isis' ideology. but leaving is not a choice isis offers them. cnn, beirut. >> now u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel says all options are on the table except a ground intervention. and the u.s. is prepared to deal with the threat. he spoke to jim sciutto. >> reporter: with the brutality of isis playing out on television screens across the world, defense secretary chuck hagel said there is only one u.s. end game. >> we're providing the president with those options to degrade and destroy isil's capability. >> reporter: that's the end game, contain and destroy.

>> no, it's not contain. it's degrade and destroy. >> reporter: there have been mixed signals from the administration as to how imminent and severe that threat is. two weeks ago you sadie sis is an imminent threat to everything we have. after your comments, the administration seemed to pull back somewhat. you had the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff describe it as a regional threat. is it an imminent threat to the u.s. homeland or to the region? >> first of all, i didn't say homeland. i said to u.s. interests. >> reporter: you said an imminent threat to every interest we have. >> i didn't say homeland. i said all of our interests. look at what just happened 24 hours ago on another video on another citizen as to what isil did. isil is a threat to this country, to our interests. >> reporter: but is there a plan for military action beyond the current mission in iraq? is part of the strategy military

strikes inside syria? >> that's an option, and we're looking at all those options. >> reporter: have you prepared -- well, david cameron and barack obama will be speaking at the nato summit today. we cross over to nick robertson now, he's with the british prime minister. >> reporter: thank you very much. not on the agenda, prime minister david cameron, not on the agenda isis, but certainly high up everyone's discussion points. president obama saying in estonia that isis should be destroyed. he also said it should be sh rungs to manageable side. what should it 2 be? >> squeezed out of existence is the way i should put it. but what we're facing here is this islamic extremist narrative. it isn't just in iraq and syria. we've also seen it in somalia, mali, and afghanistan when

hosted by the taliban. so this is a generational struggle. i would disagree with you that it's not on the agenda. it is. we're going to be discussing it at the leaders' dinner this evening. one of the things nato is going to be agreeing in this next two days is that we should be helping those countries most threatened build their capacity. we'll be offering jordan capacity and help for their armed forces to make sure they can play a greater role in keeping their people and region safe. we don't rule anything out. we'll act with partners in our national interest. we've already taken important steps with americans and others. we've been helping the kurds. just last night a british plane landed with body armor for the kurdish forces. i think there's more we can do in both those areas. we've been flying surveillance missions over iraq, working with our american allies.

we support the actions america has taken so far. >> reporter: in syria, those on the ground include president assad. are you prepared to work with him? how can you commit to action against isis without his involvement? >> i think we need to be k consistent. his brutality against his own people has led some people into this extremist path. what we want in arack is the same as we want in syria which is governments based on the support of all their people and able to deliver that for their people. the other failure in the region has been up to now we've had an iraqi government that hasn't represented everyone in iraq. so i would say the brutality of the government and this extremism, those are the problems we're dealing with.

>> on that poisonous narrative, the man with the british accent seen notice murder of james foley and steven sotloff, are you any closer to identifying him? >> we have been working exhaustively to identify all the people who have involved. we're not going to give out that information publicly. but obviously what we're doing is to stop people from traveling, taking away passports, banning people from traveling. preventing people from returning. we're looking at all the things that we can do. but i'm in no doubt that these people, they will face justice one way or the other. >> reporter: this specific man, there's a huge interest in him. are you getting any closer than you were a few weeks ago? >> we're carrying out intensive work. i'm not going to make a public announcement about it today. and we share our information

with our key allies and making sure we do everything we can to bring these absolutely horrific people to justice. >> reporter: let's shift to the other important thing on the agenda, ukraine. president putin released steps towards peace in ukraine. do you trust those steps in his outline? >> well, it's positive in at least he's making noises about peace. i think the difficulty in trust is partly because putin has been denying that there are russian troops on kraipen soil when everyone can see that is the case. what is required here at the nato summit is two things, one that we stand behind our article v commitments to defend. and second, those of us who have imposed sanctions, and good work done by europe and america should redouble our efforts to say to russia, you have a choice, if you go on with this

destabilization and potential breaking up of ukraine, there will be ha very different relationship between russia on the one hand and europe on the other. and let's be frank. russia needs america and europe more than america and europe need russia. we need to make that relationship pay. >> reporter: what president putin is suggesting amounts to the pro-russian rebels essentially annexing russia, by default, annexing part of the southeast of ukraine. can that be allowed to stand? >> that isn't acceptable. we've seen this in other areas, the so-called frozen conflicts. and we see this in the russian playbook. and, look, kraip is a free democratic state. its people has made a choice, not that they want to leave a relationship with russia and purely look to europe, but a choice where they do want to have an association agreement with europe. they should be allowed to make that choice. and it's not acceptable for putin to somehow say there needs

to be a new state carved out of ukraine. >> reporter: thank you. >> thanks a lot. >> reporter: a lot of issues there to be discussed. the meetings begin to get under way in about three hours time there will be a banquet. as you heard from the prime minister, the issue of isis, that's very much going to be talked about here likely at that banquet tonight. >> nick will be at the nato summit for the next few days along with our white house team. we'll bring you any updates as they come through to us. we'll be right back.

an update on a weather story for you. heavy rain is continuing to flood parts of asia. ivan cabrera joins us with details on specifically where. ivan? >> chong ching has been hit over the last couple days with torrential rainfall. this system is now sliding to the south, giving us a break. but across the boundary we see very heavy rainfall in japan. 170 millimeters. this has been the dramatic scene unfolding across china the last couple days as a result of that

heavy rain. it's extended into shanghai, although the worse of it heading to the south. ho locally heavy rain continues in japan. and this disturbed area across the pacific we'll keep an eye on this tropical development over the next couple days as it moves to the north. all the while dumping heavy rain across manila. a in minnesota and michigan the bulk of wisconsin getting in on this. and a chunk of iowa as well down towards waterloo involved in that severe weather threat. behind it it's cool weather, out ahead of it it's hot. we'll get cooling thunderstorms across the southeastern u.s. looks pretty good across the northeast, new york finally

sighing temperatures knocked down a little bit, mid-80s. we can handle that. 69 up in minneapolis. that's where we're expecting that severe weather threat there. and 98 will be the high temperature in dallas. but with the humidity, it's going to feel like it's well into the 100s. we'll send it raight back over o london and max. for our viewers in the united states, early start is up next. and for our international audience, i'll be back with cnn news center after this short break. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything.

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u.s. passports. new concerns over american who is have left this country to fight for isis and other extremist groups. this is a family of murdered american journalist stephen