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By Amy Langfield

August 16, 2026

By Amy Langfield

August 16, 2026

 
 

Good morning and welcome to the Sunday edition of Morning Wire. Today we look at how Israeli settlers in the West Bank are part of a larger movement supercharged under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Ukraine has ramped up a campaign of long-range strikes inside Russia; and rescuers search for survivors in Indonesia after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake and 995 aftershocks shook the region.


But first, AP has an exclusive look at an effort by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to redirect the Defense Department’s school system toward patriotic values and classical learning.

 

UP FIRST

AP Morning Wire

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at a forum of The Americas Counter Cartel Coalition in Panama City, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

US military base schools put new emphasis on Western civilization and Christianity

The Department of Defense is introducing a course centered on Western civilization and Christianity this fall in the schools it operates for military families, part of an effort by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to redirect the education system toward patriotic values and classical learning. The Department of Defense Education Activity operates about 160 schools across 11 countries and educates roughly 70,000 students who are children of active-duty military or civilian service members. Conservatives have eyed the schools — which, unlike most public schools, are run by the federal government — as a testing ground for reshaping education. Read more.

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TOP STORIES

Israeli soldiers and settlers order Israeli and foreign peace activists to leave the site during a protest in support of local landowners whose property is threatened with seizure by Israeli settlers, on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Beit Sahour, Friday. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

There’s a reason why Israel has done little to rein in settler violence. It’s not just Netanyahu

A dayslong standoff in the occupied West Bank points to Israel's reluctance to rein in settler violence against Palestinians. Many of Israel's political leaders have criticized the violence. But most support the larger settlement enterprise aimed at cementing control over the West Bank and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the most settler-friendly government in Israel's history and it has eased military restrictions on them. But the settlements, considered illegal by much of the international community, have grown under all of his predecessors. Read more.

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Trump told Ukraine it had no cards. Then Kyiv took the war to Russia

U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year that he had “no cards" in the fight against Russia. In the months after that disastrous meeting, Trump warmly welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and seemed ready to push Ukraine into an unfavorable peace deal. But since the meeting, Ukraine has shown it can take the war to Russia. In one operation, drones smuggled into the country destroyed or damaged Russian bombers worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Kyiv has ramped up a campaign of longer-range strikes, increased production of weapons, targeted Russian air defenses, and hit oil infrastructure and warehouses of a major retailer. But as Ukraine’s strikes have intensified, so have Russia’s. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

  • Ukraine launches one of its largest aerial attacks of the war, killing at least 6 people in Russia
 

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IN OTHER NEWS

A man checks his phone near a building collapsed due to an earthquake, in Reok, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Sunday. (AP Photo/Aquila Handayani Abbas)

READ

Saturday’s 7.7 quake: Rescuers dig through rubble and landslides after Indonesia quake kills 53

Rare hurricane: Lala is again a tropical storm, sending drenching rain and winds across the Hawaiian islands

Overloaded ferry: 26 more bodies are recovered in Zimbabwe’s ferry disaster, bringing death toll to 72

Fatal Michigan shooting: Teen boy among 6 dead including suspect

Virginia State University shooting: Police have arrested a 19-year-old in connection with shooting that wounded 5 people