A secretive U.S. Army helicopter unit sent to the Mediterranean last year in response to Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel was conducting nighttime target practice when one of its crews crashed into the sea after a diving attack, killing all five on board, according to a mishap report obtained by The Washington Post.

The leaders of President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have discussed trying to create a mobile app for Americans to file their taxes free with the Internal Revenue Service, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

Germany’s defense minister said Tuesday officials have to assume damage to two data cables under the Baltic Sea, one of which ends in Germany, was caused by sabotage — though he said they have no proof at present. Damage was detected Monday to the C-Lion1 cable that runs nearly 1.200 kilometers (750 miles) from the Finnish capital, Helsinki, to the German port city of Rostock. Another cable between Lithuania and Sweden was also damaged. Speaking in Brussels, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Russia poses not just a military but also a hybrid threat, and that Europe needs to take a broad approach to defense.

An unidentified person appears to have accessed documents shared among lawyers in a lawsuit that concerns allegations against former congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), according to a person who received an email notifying them of the breach. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The file contains unredacted sworn testimony from an individual who said Gaetz paid to have an inappropriate relationship with her when she was 17, along with other depositions from witnesses involved in the case, said a person who was notified of the hack, which was first reported by the New York Times. Gaetz has denied the allegations.

Russia has accused Ukraine of launching a salvo of US-made long-range missiles against its Bryansk region on Tuesday — marking a significant escalation on the 1,000th day of the ongoing war.
Russian news outlets, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, reported that Russian air defense systems intercepted five of the incoming missiles and successfully damaged one during the early morning attack.
The Russian Ministry added that the wreckage of one missile struck a military installation in the region, sparking a fire, but there were no significant damages or casualties.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trum

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir spoke at the start of an Otzma Yehudit party meeting on Monday and revealed that Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara tried to fabricate a criminal case against him. “This story,” Ben-Gvir began, “should shake the foundations. It also shows the working methods of the attorney-general. Unfortunately, the picture I get is that she does what she wants, with no limits or checks, and what I’m about to tell you illustrates this.” “A few months ago, one of the attorney-general’s deputies visited the police’s Lahav 443 crime unit.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday formally lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons, a move that follows U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russian territory with American-supplied longer-range missiles. The new doctrine allows for a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles early Tuesday at a military facility in Russia’s Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, adding that air defenses shot down five of them and damaged one more.

Washington has made it clear to Turkey that there can be no more “business as usual” with regard to the Hamas terrorist organization, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.
At a daily press briefing, Miller would not confirm recent reports that Hamas’s senior leadership had relocated to Turkey from Qatar, but said that he was not in a position to dispute them.
“We don’t believe the leaders of a vicious terrorist organization should be living comfortably anywhere, and that certainly includes in a major city of one of our key allies and partners,” he said.