Congressional Republicans are racing to extend a controversial spying program before it is scheduled to lapse Friday at midnight. 

House lawmakers voted 235 to 191 in a bipartisan manner to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term.

The vote split Republicans with more than 20 GOP privacy hawks voting against a three-year extension of the warrantless surveillance program.

The successful vote leaves the Senate little time to act before the fast-approaching April 30 deadline.

SPEAKER JOHNSON ONE STEP CLOSER TO RENEWING CONTROVERSIAL SPY PROGRAM AFTER CONSERVATIVES FALL IN LINE

A swath of House conservatives voted against the FISA renewal bill, citing concerns that the measure does not include more stringent privacy safeguards, such as a requirement for intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before accessing Americans’ data. 

The spy law — considered to be one of the government’s most powerful surveillance tools — allows the U.S. government to gather intelligence on foreigners abroad who are using U.S. platforms, even when those communications involve Americans.

«We should all be standing up for the Fourth Amendment,» Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leading GOP privacy hawk, said during debate on the FISA renewal bill Tuesday.

House leadership attempted to win over some conservative holdouts by adding language permanently banning the Federal Reserve from issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDC) to the FISA renewal bill.

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has warned that the sweetener for privacy hawks will be interpreted as a poison pill in the Senate, where Democrats fiercely oppose a CBDC ban.

«They know that,» Thune told reporters Tuesday, referring to House Republicans. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has warned House Republicans from sending the upper chamber a FISA renewal bill with a ban on central bank digital currencies (CBDC) attached. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

DEMS PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS TO KEEP OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES FIGHT ALIVE AFTER VOTE TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT

Johnson has voiced optimism that the upper chamber will take up the House bill without modifications. 

«I speak with Leader Thune all the time. They’re watching this very closely, and hopefully they can process what we send them,» Johnson told Fox News Wednesday. «No one on the Republican side anyway, wants to play around with letting these critical national security tools go unfunded or expire,» he added. «So I think they’ll move it expeditiously.»

The Trump administration has pressured House Republicans for weeks to back an extension of the spy law, arguing the surveillance authority is too vital for national security to expire.

«This department strongly supports the reauthorization of FISA 702,» Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Wednesday. «It is not hyperbole to say many of the most important missions we have executed could not have happened without the intelligence gathered through FISA 702.»

War Secretary Pete Hegseth urged House lawmakers to approve a FISA renewal bill during an appearance before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. (Kevin Wolf/AP)

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House Democrats, many of whom have fierce objections to a clean extension of the spy law, voted en masse against the measure. 

«I’m suspicious. The way it’s proposed right now, particularly under this administration,» Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., told Fox News, referring to the FISA renewal bill. «I was more comfortable when I voted for it in 2024. Under this administration, I’m not as comfortable.»

Just 42 Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, crossed party lines in support of the measure.

«I’ve seen countless, countless instances where the intelligence obtained through section 702 quite literally saved lives,» the Connecticut Democrat said. «So, given the binary choice between reauthorization and expiration, the responsible choice is reauthorization.»

EXCLUSIVE: A surge in online claims warning of famine in Gaza is gaining traction across social media and international outlets, but newly surfaced data reviewed by Fox News Digital from the United Nations, the Board of Peace and the Israeli military tells a sharply different story. 

The figures were shared at a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), a forum that coordinates international aid to the Palestinians, by the Board of Peace and described as based on reporting from the U.N.

Children aged 6 to 59 months admitted for acute malnutrition treatment rose from 2,807 cases in January 2025 to a peak of 17,384 in August 2025 before declining steadily to 3,043 in March 2026, an approximately 83% drop, according to the data. 

EYEWITNESS TO FIGHTING HAMAS TERRORISTS IN GAZA’S DEADLY NETZARIM CORRIDOR: ‘THE CHALLENGES ARE CONSTANT’

The figures challenge a rapidly spreading narrative that Gaza is facing widespread famine, a claim gaining traction across global media and shaping international pressure on Israel.

The dataset also indicates that most remaining cases are now classified as «moderate» or linked to chronic medical and genetic conditions requiring sustained support.

Separate figures presented at the same meeting, collected by the Board of Peace, show a sharp increase in humanitarian aid delivery following the establishment of the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in October 2025. The U.S.-led, multinational hub, located in Israel, is designed to manage post-war Gaza stabilization. 

The Civil-Military Coordination Center oversees aid delivery, monitors a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, and coordinates efforts with 60 nations and organizations.

The figures show weekly truck deliveries into Gaza rose from approximately 1,300 to 4,200, while the percentage of trucks diverted en route dropped from roughly 90% to just 1% post-Civil-Military Coordination Center. 

The number of people reached with food assistance increased from about 400,000 before the Civil-Military Coordination Center was established to approximately 2.1 million post-coordination center. 

And yet, April has seen a spike in messaging alleging «engineered starvation» in Gaza, according to HonestReporting, a U.S.-based pro-Israel media watchdog, with the narrative spreading from Hamas-linked channels to mainstream platforms in a matter of days. 

«On April 13, our team began seeing posts about soda and Nutella entering Gaza at the same time that Doctors Without Borders accused Israel of trying to ‘destroy the conditions of life,’» said Jacki Alexander, CEO of HonestReporting. «We used our proprietary AI tool to identify whether this was part of a broader pattern, and that analysis formed the basis of our memo.»

«Since then, we’ve seen continued use of famine-related language across social media and ideologically aligned outlets,» Alexander said. «Content claiming mass starvation has reached millions of views, and the narrative has expanded to include allegations about blocked medical supplies.»

The HonestReporting report said the messaging quickly escalated, with viral posts claiming bakeries were shutting down, food supplies were critically low and an «entire generation» of children faced irreversible harm. The narrative, claimed the report, was further reinforced by coverage in outlets including Drop Site News, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss and Al Jazeera English.

«Hamas understands that its best leverage exists in the information war,» Alexander said. 

«That’s why we developed these tools — to document narrative warfare and create a blueprint to dismantle it,» Alexander told Fox News Digital. 

ISRAEL ANNOUNCES IMMEDIATE RESUMPTION OF GAZA AID AIRDROPS AMID GROWING HUNGER CRISIS

President Donald Trump participates in a charter announcement for his Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts during the 56th annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies nonprofit, said, «What we’re seeing is a recurring pattern in this conflict where the humanitarian narrative is being weaponized.»

Goldberg argued that the timing of the famine claims is tied to growing pressure on Hamas to disarm and to broader diplomatic efforts involving the United States, Arab states and international partners.

«One of those weapons is trying to resurrect a narrative of famine,» he said.

Hamas is seeking to «undermine» a coalition involved in shaping Gaza’s post-war future, according to Goldberg, and prevent consensus around next steps. 

«Hamas is the isolated party, and they do not want to disarm,» he said.

Goldberg said that, unlike earlier stages of the war, the current environment makes it harder for such claims to take hold. 

«You now have months of ceasefire, and the U.N. and other partners have been directly involved in the humanitarian effort,» he said.

«They all have the data… and they are all in a position where there’s a brick wall Hamas is going to find for its disinformation tactics,» he added.

WARFARE EXPERT CALLS GAZA REBUILDING PLAN ‘DISNEYLAND STRATEGY’ TO DEFEAT HAMAS

Personnel work at the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat, Israel, on Nov. 19, 2025, coordinating with Israeli counterparts to monitor the Gaza truce. (Ahikam Seri/AFP)

«What worked against just Israel a year ago cannot work as well against an entire coalition,» Goldberg said.

A senior Israeli military official told Fox News Digital that during the ceasefire, humanitarian throughput into Gaza averaged roughly 600 trucks per day, far above what the official said U.N. planning models estimated was required to meet baseline food needs.

«According to the U.N., it’s somewhere between 115 to 130 trucks a day,» the official said, while emphasizing that recent aid levels have significantly exceeded that threshold.

The official said that despite temporary disruptions during the Iran conflict, crossings quickly reopened and aid volumes returned to high levels, arguing that current famine allegations are «completely false.»

«It’s impossible with the amount of aid that is going in,» the official said. «There is no shortage of food in the Gaza Strip for an extended period.»

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) similarly told Fox News Digital that Israel’s defense establishment believes Hamas is attempting to exploit global attention shifting toward Iran and Lebanon by pushing renewed humanitarian collapse narratives about Gaza.

Hamas has repeatedly sought throughout the war to portray «a deliberately false narrative of the collapse of the humanitarian system» in Gaza in order to increase international pressure on Israel and shape negotiations, according to COGAT. 

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World Food Programme aid is positioned at the Erez crossing on the Israel-Gaza border, according to an IDF spokesman. (IDF Spokesman)

A security official said Hamas intensifies such campaigns whenever diplomatic pressure rises.

«Hamas is trying to stall for time and is using all means to maintain its grip on power,» the official said. «Whenever negotiations over an agreement take place, Hamas intensifies false campaigns about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip in order to secure international support through fabricated crises.»

Fox News Digital has reached out to the United Nations and the World Food Programme for comment. 

Por el aumento de las temperaturas en El Salvador, el Lago de Coatepeque experimenta actualmente un notable crecimiento de cianobacterias, fenómeno que capta la atención de especialistas del Laboratorio de Toxinas Marinas de la Universidad de El Salvador (UES). Esta situación, observada en las últimas semanas, coincide con lluvias recientes y una mayor disponibilidad de nutrientes en el ecosistema acuático, factores que, según los expertos, han favorecido la proliferación de estas microalgas.

De acuerdo con información recogida por Radio YSKL, la analista del Laboratorio de Toxinas Marinas de la UES, Ana María Salinas, explicó que el fenómeno está asociado con las elevadas temperaturas y la lluvia registrada en el territorio, lo cual ha aumentado los nutrientes en el lago.

“Las altas temperaturas y la disponibilidad de nutrientes favorecen su crecimiento. Las lluvias recientes han incrementado la escorrentía y, con ella, los nutrientes en el cuerpo de agua, lo que ha favorecido la proliferación”, detalló la especialista.

Salinas también subrayó que la identificación de estas microalgas requiere entrenamiento y el uso de microscopio. Aunque generalmente no pueden distinguirse a simple vista, la acumulación masiva de cianobacterias en la superficie del lago ha hecho visible el fenómeno. “Forman filamentos y, en condiciones favorables, las podemos observar en grandes cantidades”, precisó la experta.

El laboratorio de la UES lleva adelante una vigilancia permanente sobre el lago desde 2004, según explicó Óscar Amaya, director de la dependencia, en declaraciones a Radio YSKL. Esta labor permite identificar patrones y anticipar riesgos asociados a la proliferación de microalgas, que suelen acentuarse durante los cambios de estación o en episodios de calor intenso.

Un aspecto que ha llamado la atención de residentes y visitantes del Lago de Coatepeque es el cambio en el color del agua. Salinas señaló que, aunque las cianobacterias presentan un color verdoso cuando se observan con microscopio, a simple vista el lago puede mostrar tonalidades marrones o cafés, especialmente cuando las microalgas comienzan a descomponerse. Esta alteración en la apariencia del lago ha sido uno de los indicios más notorios del fenómeno y uno de los que más cautiva la atención de todos los turistas.

El impacto de la proliferación de cianobacterias no se limita a la apariencia estética del cuerpo de agua. Según los especialistas, el fenómeno puede afectar la disponibilidad de oxígeno en el lago, dificultando la vida de otras especies acuáticas. Además, algunas especies de cianobacterias producen toxinas que representan un riesgo para la salud humana y para los ecosistemas.

“Hay especies productoras de toxina que pueden causar daño a la población. Actualmente, en el laboratorio no podemos confirmar la presencia de toxinas en esta cianobacteria, pero el monitoreo es fundamental”, afirmó Salinas.

Hasta el momento, el Ministerio de Salud no ha reportado casos de personas afectadas por intoxicación debido a la presencia de cianobacterias en el Lago de Coatepeque. Los técnicos de la Universidad de El Salvador continuarán con los análisis para identificar con precisión la especie presente y evaluar el nivel de riesgo para la población local.

La comunidad científica hace un llamado a permanecer atentos a la evolución de este fenómeno y a no entrar en contacto directo con las zonas donde la acumulación de microalgas es visible, dado el riesgo potencial asociado a la exposición a toxinas. Las autoridades mantienen el monitoreo y la investigación para brindar información oportuna y actualizada sobre la situación en el lago.