
IRS to stand up second 'surge team' to address massive tax filing backlog, per Taxpayer Advocate
CNN
The Internal Revenue Service will stand up a second "surge team" to address its massive backlog of tax returns and correspondence, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate, who heads an independent watchdog organization within the IRS.
The IRS has already redirected roughly 1,200 employees back into entry-level clerical positions, where they are manually filing paperwork and answering phones, to shrink the backlog and address taxpayer confusion. The agency has also implemented mandatory overtime for employees.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig wrote in a recent op-ed for Yahoo! Money that the agency is "creating and redirecting surge teams to address the inventories," as part of an effort to sort through the backlog.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.

Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.

Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.

As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.









