A top U.S. military official says there's been no final decision on whether or not all U.S. troops will leave Niger and Chad. Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement last month that allows U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Chad also has questioned its agreement that allows the U.S. to conduct critical counterterrorism operations within its borders. Grady says that if both countries ultimately decide the U.S. cannot remain, the military will have to look for alternatives to run counterterrorism missions across the vast Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert.

A former senior U.S. official who until recently helped oversee human-rights compliance by foreign militaries receiving American military assistance says he repeatedly observed Israel receiving “special treatment” from U.S. officials when it came to scrutiny of allegations of military abuses of Palestinian civilians. The allegation Wednesday comes as the Biden administration faces intense pressure over its ally’s treatment of Palestinian civilians during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Charles Blaha is the second recent former State official to raise such allegations. The State Department says there are no double standards or special treatment for Israel.

Ukrainian officials are expressing thanks for $61 billion in new U.S. military aid, even though the supplies aren’t expected to have an immediate impact on the battlefield. Ukrainian troops have faced acute shortages of shells and air defense systems as political quarrels in Washington held up the aid for months. That has enabled Russian forces to edge forward in some parts of eastern Ukraine. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the key now is speed. He urges quick deployment of the hardware that Kyiv expects to receive in the coming weeks and months.

U.S. officials say Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles, striking a Russian military airfield in Crimea and Russian troops in another occupied area overnight. The strikes come about a month after the U.S. secretly provided the weapons so Ukraine could strike targets up to 190 miles away. One U.S. official says the delivery of the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, was approved by President Joe Biden in February, and then in March the U.S. included a “significant” number of them in a $300 million aid package announced. The official says the U.S. is providing more in the latest aid package.

The names of thousands of people held in Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II have been digitized and made available for free on Ancestry. The genealogy company announced Wednesday it is collaborating with the Irei Project, which has been working to memorialize more than 125,000 detainees. Ancestry is known as one of the largest global online resources of family history. Researchers with the Irei Project say it’s an ideal partnership because the project’s researchers were already utilizing Ancestry. Out of over 60 billion records Ancestry holds, nearly 350,000 have been found to be relevant. People will be able to look at more than just names and delve into a bigger story for each person.