The 2014 Wales Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held in Newport, Wales on 4 and 5 September 2014. Such summits are sporadically held, allow leaders and officials from NATO Allies to discuss current issues of mutual concern and to plan strategic activities; the 2014 summit has been described by US Navy Admiral James Stavridis as the most important since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The summit was hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron. Attendees included Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. There were another 180 VIPs, 4,000 delegates and officials from 60 countries; the official logo for the summit included a panel with four quadrants, each bearing a stylised symbol of Newport or Wales: a Celtic knot, the Welsh Dragon, Newport Transporter Bridge and a Welsh castle.

The entrance to the venue was fronted by a full-scale replica of a Eurofighter Typhoon. World leaders met at the Celtic Manor, informally at other locales in and around Cardiff, they discussed ongoing events in the world, such as terrorism, cyber warfare, other areas of national security interest to the member states. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had a joint discussion with EU big four leaders and US President Barack Obama before the official start of the Summit, to discuss the crisis with Russia; the following declarations and agreements were made at the Summit: Wales Summit Declaration Joint Expeditionary Force agreement Armed Forces Declaration Joint Statement of the NATO-Ukraine Commission Declaration on Afghanistan The Wales Declaration on the Transatlantic BondAt the end of the summit Ukrainian President Poroshenko announced a ceasefire, agreed with one of the leading pro-Russia separatist leaders, under terms proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, cautiously welcomed by NATO leaders.

Wales PledgeFor the first time, the Allies formally pledged to aim to move towards what had been an informal guideline of spending 2% of their gross domestic products on defense, 20% of that on new equipment. For countries which spend less than 2% they agreed upon that these countries "aim to move towards the 2% guideline within a decade". In 2015, five of its 28 members met that goal. At the beginning of 2018, eight of the 29 members either were meeting the target or were close to it. Further outcomes were the development of the Readiness Action Plan and the Defence and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative. Protests and marches took place in Newport and Cardiff involving several hundred people, though the turnout was much lower than predicted. A retired German politician, Walther Stützle, former defence secretary of state and former head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, criticised the summit agenda for its focus on military details and not political perspectives.

Stützle said that the Russian Federation was not a military threat to NATO but criticised that new NATO members' policies were not détente and negotiation with the Russian Federation. In both Newport and Cardiff, road closures and security measures, starting weeks in advance of the summit, created widespread disruption. Thirteen miles of security fencing, 2.7 m high, was erected around the Newport hotel venue and 10 miles of fencing put up around Cardiff city centre, creating what was described as a "ring of steel". Businesses in the vicinity of security fencing in Cardiff reported a drop in trade by up to a third; this fencing was based on, expanded, the'National Barrier Asset', held in reserve for similar events. Security included around 9,500 specially trained police officers patrolling the streets of the two cities, military helicopters including US Osprey V22s and the Royal Navy's new £1bn Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan. Albania – Minister of Foreign Affairs Ditmir Bushati Belgium – Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders Bulgaria – Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Mitov France – Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius Germany – Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier Italy – Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini Norway – Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende Spain – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation José García-Margallo y Marfil United Kingdom – Foreign & Commonwealth Secretary Philip Hammond United States – Secretary of State John Kerry NATO Summit Wales 2014 2014 NATO Summit Media information Łukasz Kulesa: NATO at a Crossroads – Again: Recommendations for the Newport Summit, PDF

Chełmek is a town in Lesser Poland Voivodeship in southern Poland. In 1975–1998 it belonged to Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship, it has 9,073 inhabitants. Known for the Chełmek Shoe Factory, which until 1947 was part of Bata Shoes. During World War II, a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp was created in 1941 by Otto P. Klein in the northern sector of the town, housing overflow from Auschwitz. Chełmek lies at the foot of the Skała hill; the town is surrounded by forests, was first mentioned in 1414. In 1490, it belonged to a parish from Jaworzno, until the first partition of Poland, it was a small village, which belonged to Kraków Voivodeship, one of three voivodeships of Lesser Poland. In 1772 Chełmek was annexed as part of Galicia; the village was located right on the border between Prussian Silesia, Austrian Galicia, in 1815, it became part of Chrzanów District of the Free City of Kraków. In November 1846, the Free City was annexed by Austria, in 1856, rail line from Kraków to Vienna, via Chełmek was constructed.

In the Second Polish Republic, Chełmek belonged to Kraków Voivodeship, due to proximity of the Silesian border, its residents helped Silesian rebels. Until 1931, Chełmek remained a poor village, whose inhabitants would emigrate from it, seeking for work at local coal mines. In 1931, legendary Czech businessman Tomas Bata decided to acquire land in Chełmek, to build a shoe factory here, together with a settlement for workers. In five years, the population of the village doubled, a new church, kindergarten and culture house were built. During World War II, Chełmek was annexed by the Third Reich; the Germans left the village on January 25, 1945, soon after the war, the school and the 1920s iron bridge over the Przemsza were rebuilt. In 1947, the Bata Shoe Factory was nationalized, in 1969 Chełmek received town charter. Official town webpage Jewish Community in Chełmek on Virtual Shtetl

The Queen's Medal for Music is an annual award, instituted in 2005, for contribution to the musical life of Great Britain. The expenses of the award come from the Privy Purse; the Medal may be awarded to people of any nationality. The first recipient was the Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. 2005 Sir Charles Mackerras 2006 Bryn Terfel 2007 Judith Weir 2008 Kathryn Tickell 2009 Sir Colin Davis 2010 Dame Emma Kirkby 2011 Nicholas Daniel 2012 National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain 2013 Sir Thomas Allen 2014 Simon Halsey 2015 Oliver Knussen 2016 Nicola Benedetti 2017 Thea Musgrave 2018 Gary Crosby