The US Senate early yesterday rejected legislation aimed at reforming US National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence gathering, a blow to US President Barack Obama and others who support ending the bulk collection of US residents’ telephone records.
The US House of Representatives passed the measure overwhelmingly last week, with Democrats and Republicans uniting in their desire to rein in the controversial NSA programs that scoop up data from millions of people in the US with no connection to terrorism.
However, it got hung up in the Senate, where it fell three votes shy of the 60 necessary to advance.
The Senate immediately turned to consideration of a two-month extension that would temporarily reauthorize the telephone data dragnet and other parts of the USA PATRIOT Act, which are set to expire on Monday next week without congressional action.
However, that bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold as well.
When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed quickly voting on extensions lasting until June 8 or even Wednesday next week — two days after the US Congress is to return from a break — Republican Senator Rand Paul objected, placing several national security provisions in jeopardy.
In addition to telephone metadata collection, provisions authorizing roving wiretaps and so-called “lone-wolf” tracking are also set to expire when the clock strikes midnight at the end of this month.
With legislators scrambling for a solution in the dead of night before the Senate goes on a scheduled one-week break, the White House on Friday drove home the very real prospect that national security operations could lapse on Monday next week.
“There is no plan B,” White House spokesman Joshua Earnest told reporters. “These are authorities that Congress must legislate [and are] critically important to ensuring that the basic safety and security of the American people is protected, and that the basic civil liberties of the American people are protected.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
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