President-elect Donald Trump decided Friday to let the world read his Christmas letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The note, sent on Dec. 15 and addressed to "his excellency," included some warm holiday wishes from the Kremlin and a glimpse into Putin's hopes for a "new level" of "collaboration" between the U.S. and Russia:

Trump made his response to Putin's letter public, too. In a statement attached to the letter — which Trump called "very nice" — the president-elect said Putin's "thoughts are so correct." "I hope both sides are able to live up to these thoughts, and we do not have to travel an alternate path," Trump said in the statement.

Their holiday exchange follows assessments from the U.S. intelligence community that concluded Russia interfered in the U.S. political election to help Trump, a claim both Trump and Putin have denied. Becca Stanek

A friend of Republican operative Roger Stone said he's been told by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team that he will be indicted for perjury.

"This was one of the most confusing and frightening things I've experienced," Jerome Corsi, a conservative author, commentator, and conspiracy theorist, told NBC News on Monday. "I'm 72 years old and I'm afraid they're going to lock me up and put me in solitary confinement." Mueller is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and has reportedly called nearly a dozen of Stone's associates, including Corsi, in front of his Washington, D.C., grand jury.

Corsi said he was interviewed about WikiLeaks obtaining emails hacked from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. NBC News reported in October that Mueller's team has communications suggesting Corsi knew ahead of time that WikiLeaks was going to publish Podesta's stolen emails; Corsi said he can't remember ever meeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange or receiving information from anyone about Podesta's emails, and "figured out" the emails were going to be published by doing his own detective work. "They have all your emails and phone records," he said of Mueller's team, adding, "They're very good at the perjury trap." Catherine Garcia

Democrat Kyrsten Sinema defeated Republican Martha McSally in the Arizona Senate race, The Associated Press, NBC News, and several other outlets project.

The winner wasn't apparent on Nov. 6, as Arizona still had a lot of votes to count, and on Monday, Sinema's lead over McSally grew to 1.7 percentage points. McSally tweeted her congratulations to Sinema, and said she remains "inspired by Arizonans' spirit" and believes "our state's best days are ahead of us."

Sinema, a three-term congresswoman who bills herself as a moderate, will fill the seat held by retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R), becoming the first woman in state history elected to the Senate. Catherine Garcia

At least three people were killed and 29 injured on Monday when Palestinian militants fired at least 300 rockets and mortar bombs at Israel and Israeli fighter jets bombed buildings across Gaza.

The dead include two Palestinian militants. The violence was triggered by a botched raid in Gaza late Sunday night that left seven Hamas militants and an Israeli lieutenant colonel dead. Hamas and a smaller group named Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rockets, with a spokesman saying they retaliated "so the occupation and its supporters know that the lives of our sons come with a price."

An Israeli airstrike destroyed the headquarters of Al Aqsa, the television station run by Hamas; Israel has said the station "broadcasts violent propaganda" and offers "operational messaging" to militants. The Associated Press reports this was likely the most "intense exchange of fire" since 2014. Catherine Garcia

Mississippi's Senate race hasn't come to an end — and neither has the controversy surrounding comments one candidate made about a "public hanging."

In a video that surfaced Sunday, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) is seen telling a man standing with her at what appears to be a Nov. 2 campaign event that "if he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row." Hyde-Smith has been asked several times about the comments, and has used every opportunity to double down on her unapologetic statement about the video, The Associated Press reports.

In the statement, Hyde-Smith defended her comments as "an exaggerated expression of regard," adding that "any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous." And when accepting an endorsement from the National Right to Life Committee on Monday, Hyde-Smith again referred questioning reporters to that statement, per AP.

Her comments hit a nerve, especially considering Hyde-Smith's Democratic opponent, former agriculture secretary Mike Espy, is black. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., pointed out that Mississippi has a long history of lynching, and called the senator's comments "a reminder ... that racism is still a festering, pervasive evil in the U.S."

Hyde-Smith was appointed to fill Sen. Thad Cochran's (R) seat after he retired amid health concerns, and has served in the Senate since April. Both she and Espy failed to reach the 50 percent threshold in last week's Senate special election, so they will face each other once more during a runoff on Nov. 27. Hyde-Smith is expected to win the deep red state. Kathryn Krawczyk

As President Trump and Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) continue to float baseless allegations of voter fraud in Florida as ballots are recounted, officials are pushing back on their claims.

Federal Circuit Chief Judge Jack Tuter, who was appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush, said Monday that he has seen no evidence of illegal activity in Broward County, the center of many of the fraud allegations. President Trump has tweeted about the county multiple times and said without evidence Monday that ballots are "massively infected" in the state, where gubernatorial and Senate elections currently have Republicans ahead by razor thin margins. Scott, who leads in the Senate race, has also accused incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) of attempting to steal the election.

But Tuter wants everyone to "ramp down the rhetoric," saying Monday that "we have to be careful about what we say," reports the Tampa Bay Times. The judge denied Scott's request to impound Broward County voting machines while they're not being used to recount ballots, but he did agree to allow three sheriffs to help oversee the recount there. "There needs to be an additional layer of confidence," Tuter explained. The Florida Department of State has also said there has been no evidence of criminal activity, reports Politico.

Nelson, meanwhile, wants to count ballots whose signatures did not match the one on the voter's registration, and he's suing to count mail-in ballots postmarked before Election Day but not delivered until after polls closed, per The Associated Press. Nelson is additionally calling on Scott to recuse himself from overseeing the recount. As this drama escalates, a Thursday deadline to complete a machine recount looms. Brendan Morrow

A photo of nearly every boy in a Wisconsin high school's class of 2019 giving a Nazi salute was posted on Twitter on Sunday. It's now under investigation by the school district and local police.

The photo seems to have been taken before Baraboo High School's junior prom this past spring, the Baraboo News Republic reports. It was tweeted from the @GoBaraboo account, captioned: "We even got the black kid to throw it up #BarabooProud," reports Madison365. Not all the boys in the photo are giving the salute, but one is flashing the "okay" sign, which some far-right trolls have rebranded as a white power symbol.

The photo was originally posted on local motorcycle photographer Peter Gust's website, but was taken down after Young Turks contributor Jules Suzdaltsev tweeted the photo Monday morning, reports Madison365. After posting the photo, Suzdaltsev began receiving messages from current and former Baraboo students who said racism was a pervasive problem in the school. One student said the photographer told the boys to throw up the Nazi salute.

Students are now on a "soft hold" at the high school and can't leave without parental and office permission while local officials investigate the issue, reports the News Republic. The Baraboo School District, several local and state officials, and even the Auschwitz Memorial Museum have condemned the photo. Kathryn Krawczyk