A swarm of Russian drones flies into Poland in what officials there regard as a deliberate provocation.

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NATO responds by bolstering the alliance’s air defenses on its eastern flank.

Moscow showcases its conventional and nuclear military might in long-planned exercises with Belarus, as it warns the West against sending foreign troops into Ukraine.

These events — all taking place in the month since the U.S.-Russia summit meeting in Alaska failed to bring peace to Ukraine — have only heightened tensions in eastern Europe.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it came days after joint maneuvers with Belarus. The latest sweeping drills, dubbed “Zapad 2025” — or “West 2025” — have worried NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania that border Belarus to the west.

The maneuvers, which wrap up Tuesday, have included nuclear-capable bombers and warships, tens of thousands of troops and thousands of combat vehicles simulating a joint response to an enemy attack -– including what officials said was planning for nuclear weapons use and options involving Russia’s new intermediate range ballistic missile, the Oreshnik.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte referenced Moscow’s hypersonic missiles, noting that they shatter the notion that Spain or Britain are any safer than Russia’s neighbors of Estonia or Lithuania.

“Let’s agree that within this alliance of 32 countries, we all live on the eastern flank,” he said in Brussels.

The anniversary of Russia’s nuclear weapons policy

One year ago this month, Putin outlined a revision of Moscow’s nuclear doctrine, noting that any nation’s conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country. That threat was clearly aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

Explosions are seen during joint Russian-Belarusian military drills at a training ground near Barysaw, Belarus, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

That doctrine also places Belarus under the Russian nuclear umbrella. Russia, which says it has deployed battlefield nuclear weapons to Belarus, plans to station Oreshnik missiles there as well later this year.

The Zapad 2025 exercise comes as Russia’s 3½-year-old war in Ukraine has dragged on despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for a peace deal and his Aug. 15 meeting with Putin in Alaska.

On Sept. 10, two days before the maneuvers started, about 20 Russian drones flew into Poland’s airspace. While Moscow denied targeting Poland and officials in Belarus alleged that the drones veered off course after being jammed by Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it was a “provocation” that “brings us all closer to open conflict, closer than ever since World War II.”

Rutte branded Moscow’s action as “reckless” as he announced a new “Eastern Sentry” initiative to bolster the alliance’s air defenses in the area.

While NATO allies in Europe have shunned Belarus’ offer to attend the drills, U.S. military observers showed up in an apparent reflection of an ongoing U.S.-Belarusian rapprochement. Last week, Belarus freed 52 political prisoners as part of a deal brokered by Washington, which lifted some sanctions on the country’s national airline.

Putin’s Oreshnik threat

FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, Jan. 29, 2024. (Dmitry Astakhov, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP, File)

When Russia first used the Oreshnik against Ukraine in November 2024, Putin warned the West it could use it next against allies of Kyiv that allowed it to strike inside Russia with their longer-range missiles.

Putin has bragged that Oreshnik’s multiple warheads plunge at speeds of up to Mach 10 and can’t be intercepted, and that several of them used in a conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack. Russian state media boasted that it would take the missile only 11 minutes to reach an air base in Poland and 17 minutes to reach NATO headquarters in Brussels. There’s no way to know whether it’s carrying a nuclear or a conventional warhead before it hits the target.

Russia has begun Oreshnik production, Putin said last month, reaffirming plans to deploy it to Belarus later this year.

Belarus’ deputy defense minister, Pavel Muraveiko, said Tuesday that the drills involved planning for the use of tactical nuclear weapons and the deployment of the Oreshnik. He didn’t give any further details.

Unlike nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that can obliterate entire cities, less-powerful tactical weapons have a short range for use against troops on the battlefield.

Russia’s Defense Ministry released videos of nuclear-capable bombers on training missions as part of the drills that spread from Belarus — which borders NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania — to the Arctic, where its naval assets practiced launches of nuclear-capable missiles, including the hypersonic Zircon missile.

Explosions are seen during joint Russian-Belarusian military drills at a training ground near Barysaw, Belarus, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Putin, who put on combat fatigues Tuesday to visit part of the drills in Russia, said that the maneuvers involved about 100,000 troops along with 10,000 combat vehicles and weapons systems at 41 firing ranges.

Rebuilding the Soviet-era ‘nuclear fortress’

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said in December that his country has several dozen Russian tactical nuclear weapons.

The revamped Russian nuclear doctrine says Moscow could use nuclear weapons “in the event of aggression” against Russia and Belarus with conventional weapons that threaten “their sovereignty and/or territorial integrity.”

Russian and Belarusian officials have made contradictory statements about who controls the weapons. When their deployment was first announced, Lukashenko said Belarus will be in charge, but the Russian military emphasized that it will retain control.

While signing a security pact with Lukashenko in December, Putin said that even with Russia controlling the Oreshniks, Moscow would allow Minsk to select the targets. He noted that if the missiles are used against targets closer to Belarus, they could carry a significantly heavier payload.

Deploying tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus would allow Russian aircraft and missiles to reach potential targets in Ukraine more easily and quickly if Moscow decides to use them. It also extends Russia’s capability to target several NATO allies in eastern and central Europe.

In this photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, Russian troops load an Iskander missile onto a mobile launcher during the joint Russian-Belarusian military drills at an undisclosed location in Kaliningrad region of Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

“The weapons’ deployment closer to the borders with the West sends a signal even if there are no plans to use it,” said Andrey Baklitskiy, senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.

Alexander Alesin, a Minsk-based military analyst, said the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus has turned it into a “balcony looming over the West” that threatens the Baltics and Poland, as well as Ukraine.

The planned Oreshnik deployment will threaten all of Europe in a return to a Cold War-era scenario when Belarus was a forward base for Soviet nuclear weapons aimed at Europe, he said.

In the Cold War, Belarus hosted more than half of the Soviet arsenal of intermediate-range missiles under the cover of its deep forests. Such land-based weapons that can reach between 310 to 3,400 miles were banned under the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty that was terminated in 2019.

“Belarus served as a nuclear fortress during the Soviet times,” Alesin said.

The USSR built about 100 heavily reinforced storage sites for nuclear weapons in Belarus, some of which have been revamped for holding Russian nuclear weapons, he said.

“If they restored several dozen storage sites and are actually keeping nuclear warheads in just two or three, the potential enemy will have to guess where they are,” Alesin added.

Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER, Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — After water polo practice at her school atop a hill overlooking Honolulu Harbor, Kapua Ong marvels at the sunset.

“I do feel proud of myself for getting in because not everyone gets accepted,” said Kapua, 14, a freshman at Kamehameha Schools, a competitive private school with affordable tuition that gives preference to Native Hawaiians. “I’m just, like, grateful for being able to have those opportunities.”

Kapua was just a baby when her parents set the stage for her acceptance at the school by adding details of her Native Hawaiian ancestry to a genealogy database. As an incoming seventh grader, she also took an admissions test and highlighted her kung fu skills and fluency in Hawaiian language.

Kamehameha Schools gives admissions preference to the Indigenous people of Hawaii, with a caveat: “to the extent permitted by law.”

A campaign is underway to test the policy’s legality and stop Kamehameha from favoring Hawaiians, part of a movement to expand the legal definition of racial discrimination in education. Conservative activists have been emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action in college admissions and by the Trump administration’s war against diversity, equity and inclusion. Now, they’re targeting scholarships, academic programs and admissions policies tied directly or indirectly to race.

Students for Fair Admissions, led by Edward Blum, a leading opponent of affirmative action, set up a website this month vowing to challenge Kamehameha’s admissions policy in court. “It is essentially impossible for a non-Native Hawaiian student to be admitted to Kamehameha,” the site says.

Alumni, parents and local leaders are urging the private school system with an endowment valued at more than $15 billion — larger than most universities — to fight to defend the policy.

“I’m hoping they hire a good lawyer, build a good case,” said Andria Tupola, a 1998 graduate and a member of the Honolulu City Council. She says the school helped her build a stronger connection to Hawaiian culture.

Attending Kamehameha can also be life-changing. The Native Hawaiian community struggles with higher rates of poverty and incarceration, so Hawaiian children may have educational disadvantages. Admission to Kamehameha offers a chance for quality private school education — with boundless opportunities, first-class facilities and Hawaiian cultural values.

Along with a breathtaking ocean view, the sprawling Honolulu campus boasts top amenities — an Olympic-sized pool, buffet lunches, athlete laundry service and grounds adorned with native plants. An annual, elaborate Hawaiian song contest between high school classes is broadcast on local TV.

A Hawaiian princess’s will

Kamehameha Schools was founded by the will of Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I. When she died in 1884, her will directed the establishment of schools that give preference to Native Hawaiians. The endowment also supports scholarships to other private schools, plus community activities.

Last year, more than 5,400 students enrolled across three Kamehameha campuses on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.

Each year, the number of applications exceeds the number of spaces by as much as 17 to 1, depending on the campus and grade, the Kamehameha website says.

There’s an understanding among Hawaii residents that only students with Hawaiian blood will be admitted. Many see the policy as a way to remedy disparities stemming from U.S. colonization and the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by a group of American businessmen.

Sterling Wong, a Kamehameha spokesperson, declined to say how many non-Hawaiian students have been admitted.

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Kalani Rosell was the first non-Hawaiian to graduate from Kamehameha Schools Maui in 2007. His acceptance drew sharp criticism from Hawaiians. The school said he had been selected after a list of qualified Hawaiian students had been exhausted.

More than 15,000 people protested after a 2005 ruling by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the policy of restricting admission to Hawaiians, ruling it violated federal civil rights law. Kamehameha sought a rehearing.

The following year, the court upheld the policy. Kamehameha later settled with the family of the white student who brought the case when he was denied admission.

“We anticipated that our nearly 140-year-old admissions policy, providing preference to Native Hawaiian children, would again be challenged,” Kamehameha trustees said in a statement. “We are confident that our policy aligns with established law.”

‘Heavy hitter’ takes on the Hawaiian schools

When Kekoa Kealoha, who graduated in 2003, heard about the campaign against the school, he was shocked to hear it was led by “somebody who was, like, a real heavy hitter.”

Students for Fair Admissions sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina in cases that led to the landmark 2023 Supreme Court decision barring colleges from considering race in admissions decisions.

Blum, a former stockbroker, has since expanded his opposition to racial preferences throughout education, fueled by President Donald Trump’s fight against DEI.

Reached by The Associated Press, Blum said he was traveling and asked for written questions. Then, he didn’t respond.

Blum’s group probably will argue the Kamehameha policy is unlikely to survive the strongest form of constitutional review because it has an absolute race-based requirement for admissions, said John Tehranian, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles.

Kamehameha could counter that its policy is not race-based, but a classification based on political status, drawing on cases that allow government programs for Native Americans, he said.

Blum’s group is going after anything related to race and “seeing what sticks,” said Natasha Warikoo, a professor at Tufts University, who wrote a book about affirmative action.

Though the Supreme Court decision focused on university admissions, conservatives have increasingly targeted K-12 schools, along with admissions factors they consider “proxies” for race, including family income and neighborhood.

For instance, in July, the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit challenging an admissions policy at Boston Public Schools’ elite exam schools that gives students additional points if they’re from lower-income areas.

Hawaiian Republican calls campaign ‘racist’

When Blum launched his campaign against Kamehameha, people started calling Brenton Awa, a Hawaiian Republican state senator.

Awa didn’t get into Kamehameha and graduated from a public school, but he called Blum anyway. When Blum didn’t call back, Awa and another Republican flew to the East Coast to find him.

“If anybody had a chance at discussion, it would be us,” Awa said.

The Arlington, Virginia, address on the website led the duo to just a mailbox. They went to an office for Blum’s attorneys but had no luck. So they met with Republicans in Washington to educate them about Kamehameha’s mission.

“Anybody going after Kamehameha Schools with this kind of initiative and intention, to us that’s racist,” Awa said.

Moving to Hawaii for ‘life-changing’ school

Kona Purdy and his family moved back to Hawaii in 2021, partly because his daughter was accepted to Kamehameha. The family had moved to Las Vegas, joining many Hawaiians who could no longer afford to live in the islands.

They were forced to move back to Vegas in 2023 when they lost their housing. “We had considered leaving her … so that she could stay in the school,” Purdy said. “It was life-changing.”

Kamehameha only charged the family about $100 in tuition.

The family returned to Hawaii in June. Purdy’s daughter is now a seventh grader at a public school.

She will apply to Kamehameha next year, hoping to rejoin for high school.

“Hopefully, the admissions policy is still in place so she has the best shot,” Purdy said.

Associated Press education writer Collin Binkley contributed.

Zebra mussel larvae has been found in Lake Gervais and Spoon Lake, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The lakes are part of the Phalen chain of Lakes in Ramsey County, between Little Canada and Maplewood.

State officials had taken water samples from Lake Gervais, Kohlman Lake, Keller Lake and Spoon Lake to check for zebra mussel larvae. While larvae were found in Lake Gervais and Spoon Lake, adult zebra mussels have not been detected. Nevertheless, the larvae indicates zebra mussel presence. The two lakes — as well as the connecting lakes Kohlman and Keller — will be listed as infested.

To prevent the spread of invasive species, the DNR asks people to:

• Clean watercraft, trailers and equipment to remove aquatic plants and prohibited invasive species.

• Drain all water and leave drain plugs out when moving watercraft and get rid of unwanted bait in the trash.

• Never release bait, plants or aquarium pets into state waters.

• Use dry docks, lifts and rafts for 21 days before moving watercraft from one waterbody to another. Also, spray down watercraft and equipment with high-pressure hoses or rinse them off with water.

There are free stations to decontaminate watercraft around the state — for more information go to the DNR website.

Anyone thinking they have found zebra mussels or other invasive species can contact the DNR at dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/ais/contacts.html.

More information can be found at mndnr.gov/ais.

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After nearly 20 years in St. Paul, Kopplin’s coffee shop will pour its last cup next month.

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While owners Andrew and Amanda Kopplin plan to continue roasting coffee and selling beans online and via wholesale, they’re shutting down the Marshall Avenue cafe and walk-up window when their lease ends, they announced on social media. An exact closing date has not been announced but is expected to be in October.

“For many reasons, (this) is the best move for us at this time,” the pair wrote online. “Wherever you stopped along your journey, thanks for sharing a cup with us! We hope you’ll stop by the window if you’re around, and we’ll see your names on our shipping and subscription lists into the future.”

The Kopplins did not respond to a request for comment.

Andrew Kopplin opened his namesake coffee shop in April 2006 in Highland Park and moved to the current Marshall Avenue spot in 2011. During those early years, Kopplin’s was one of the first and only places in the Twin Cities to find specialty or “third-wave” coffee roasted in small batches.

That style of coffee is popular now but, outside of a few places like Spyhouse and Peace Coffee in Minneapolis and JS Bean Factory and to some extent Dunn Brothers in St. Paul, was not well-known or understood in the early 2000s. So there was just as much education going on in the snug Highland Park shop as coffee-brewing, Andrew Kopplin told the Pioneer Press in 2007.

“If you can get people through it and they like what you’re doing, they’re a very devoted customer because there’s no one else that does it. But you have to get them here,” he said at the time.

Kopplin’s: 2038 Marshall Ave.; 651-808-0958; kopplinscoffee.com