With an April 30 deadline now looming, Capitol Hill is locked in a high-stakes standoff over the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). What began in 2008 as a tool to close intelligence gaps has transformed into a digital-age lightning rod, pitting the urgent demands of national security against a growing, bipartisan demand for Fourth Amendment privacy. On Friday, the House and Senate passed a 10-day extension of the program via unanimous consent after broader reauthorization efforts collapsed amid GOP divisions. This temporary measure, which moves the expiration date from April 20 to April 30, grants lawmakers a narrow window to negotiate as the Trump administration continues its push for a renewal without a warrant requirement. At the heart of the “warrant debate” is whether the FBI should be required to get a judge’s permission before searching a database of intercepted foreign communications for information belonging to Americans. The Trump administration initially sought a “clean” 18-month extension of the law, which would exclude warrant reforms entirely. This bid, along with a separate five-year proposal that included FBI limits but no warrant requirement, unraveled in the House due to opposition from Democrats and GOP hardliners. The intelligence community’s defense relies on several pillars: Proven Results: In 2023, Section 702 provided 97% of the FBI’s raw technical reporting on cyber threats and assisted in military operations. Operational Speed: Gen. Josh Rudd (NSA/Cyber Command) and the White House argue a warrant requirement acts as a “de facto ban,” slowing investigations into fast-moving threats from actors like Iran. Compliance: Officials point to a 90% drop in U.S. person queries between 2021 and 2022, with a FISA Court-calculated compliance rate of over 98%. Conversely, a coalition of “privacy hawks” argues the system allows for “backdoor” searches. This debate has taken on a civil rights dimension, particularly regarding ethnic profiling. Statistics from the FBI’s 2023 transparency report indicate that while queries have dropped, “U.S. person” queries still numbered 119,383 in 2022. Additionally, AAPI organizations have highlighted that the lack of safeguards disproportionately affects minority communities; for instance, historical data has shown that Asian Americans are roughly twice as likely to be charged under the Economic Espionage Act than those of other backgrounds, fueling fears that FISA tools could amplify such disparities. The current fight is more complex than the 2024 renewal. Three major “wildcards” are shaping the April 30 deadline: The Data Broker Loophole: Lawmakers are pushing the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, which would stop agencies from simply buying sensitive data — like location history — from private brokers to bypass the warrant process. Transatlantic Trade: The European Union has repeatedly threatened to curtail data flows, citing Section 702 as a violation of EU privacy standards. The $1.3 billion fine levied against Meta in 2023 highlighted how U.S. surveillance laws could directly threaten $1.3 trillion in annual bilateral trade. The “Spy” Provision: Critics are still fighting to repeal a 2024 expansion that widened the definition of “electronic communication service providers,” which some fear could force a broader range of U.S. businesses to assist in state surveillance. The Trump administration has already notified Congress that the FISA Court renewed program certifications for another year, but without Congressional authorization, tech companies may still challenge their obligation to comply. As the clock ticks toward April 30, Republican leaders must now decide whether to revise legislation to satisfy the House Freedom Caucus or lean on holdouts to align with the White House’s wishes.

Woke Hollywood is dead, or so we thought. The new trailer for “Ladies First” is proof that La La Land won’t give up the woke ghost. Sacha Baron Cohen, who traded his subversive “Borat” shtick for the anti-Trump Resistance, stars as a chauvinist who suffers a blow to the head and wakes up in a new reality. Forget the patriarchy. The matriarchy now runs things in this May 22 Netflix original. The laugh-free trailer is bad enough, but the sight of Borat leaning into feminist clichés is worse. And it’s far from alone. That “woke mind virus” is on the comeback trail. Rob Youngson/Netflix – copyright 2026 Netflix, Inc. The proof that woke was on the run felt substantial. Real. Refreshing. Comedians were suddenly able to speak their minds without fear of reprisal. Comedy roasts made a shocking comeback, and Netflix couldn’t wait to line up rebel comics like Tony Hinchcliffe, Tim Dillon, Ricky Gervais and Shane Gillis for new projects. Disney, the unofficial woke standard bearer, dialed down the messaging machine. The Disney+ series “Win or Lose” ditched a trans character. Big-budget releases like “Moana 2” and “Inside Out 2” left the lectures on the cutting room floor — and scored huge box office numbers along the way. More recently, Disney-owned Pixar chief Pete Docter said his company removed LGBTQ content from 2025’s “Elio” because “We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy.” Lesson learned. Or was it? Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney/Pixar That “Ladies First” trailer feels like it came from a 2020 time capsule. So does “Starfleet Academy.” The latest “Star Trek” TV show got roundly mocked on social media and by YouTube cutups like Nerdrotic and The Critical Drinker, who combined have millions of followers. The show featured a charcuterie board full of woke, from the barefoot captain curling up in her chair like a Portland librarian to a gay, cross-dressing Klingon. Mainstream critics, who lean aggressively to the Left, praised the show while audiences stayed away in droves. The show’s second season was set in motion immediately, but the cancellation news came nearly as fast. Hulu just dropped a new mini-season of “Malcolm in the Middle,” the early 2000s hit about a quirky, dysfunctional clan. The streamer knew it had a nostalgia-fueled hit on its hands, which may be why the creators gave the clan Kelly, a “non-binary” child. Just a coincidence? Hardly. Executive producer Tracy Katsy told Deadline.com the reason for the inclusion angle. “Three out of four of our kids are queer, and without making it a thing and without making an issue, I think it’s really nice to have a character that, that’s just a facet of their personality as opposed to the entire story.” Theo Wargo/Getty Images The diversity measure came with the de facto lecture sequence, too, along with the Mary Sue-style characterization. Kelly uses “they/them” and is depicted as academically gifted, level-headed, and notably the only sibling without a police record. No flaws, please. That’s another woke byproduct, removing flaws from characters meant to promote diversity and inclusion. The show also made Stevie (Craig Lamar Traylor), who displayed heterosexual characteristics in the original series, a gay man in an interracial relationship. The new action comedy “Normal” also squeezes a “non-binary” character into the story, played by Jess McLeod. The character, dubbed Alex, is given little backstory or depth, but Alex still plays a sizable role in the film’s second half. This year’s “Frankenstein” reinvention, dubbed “The Bride!” featured a cavalcade of woke talking points. The titular creature inspired a wave of rebellious women fighting back against early 20th century oppression, and Jessie Buckley’s Bride literally shouts, “Me too” … twice. And, yes, “The Bride!” may be one of 2026’s biggest box office busts with a pathetic $12 million domestic haul. Woke isn’t just about forced, clumsy inclusion. It coaxes screenwriters to lecture viewers from a hard-Left perspective. No nuance or balance, please. There’s a PowerPoint-style message to share. It’s why shows like “Matlock” and “The Pitt” have spent serious screen time pushing an aggressive, anti-ICE narrative in recent weeks. “The Pitt” also promotes an unabashed, pro-abortion agenda. The HBO Max series featured an episode with a 17-year-old pregnant teen (Abby Ryder Fortson) seeking an abortion, but she didn’t have her parents’ consent. John Wells Productions. Max. R. Scott Gemmill Productions. Sky Studios. Warner Bros. Television. HBO Max. The baby in question is more than 11 weeks along, just beyond Pennsylvania’s cutoff for a legal abortion. Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) stepped in, offering to fudge the facts to secure the abortion in question. The doctors agreed that the teen deserves to have a life, as they framed it, ignoring the positive impacts of motherhood or potentially giving up the innocent baby for adoption. The creative team behind “The Pitt” is leaning into the show’s ratings success, weaponizing the saga to advance leftist talking points as needed. It’s another familiar woke pattern — Hollywood finds success with an apolitical show or film, and later leverages that appeal to insert woke talking points. One glaring example? Even a far-Left site like TheMarySue.com cringed when the once-mighty Marvel Cinematic Universe included a clunky, “girl power” moment during the epic “Avengers: Endgame” battle. The MCU saga went woke thereafter and has yet to recover, financially speaking. Despite these stark examples, woke isn’t the cultural force in Hollywood that it was just a few short years ago. Some savvy studio types realized that its cultural tentacles remain a financial risk, to put it bluntly. Others are like Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who kept fighting World War II for nearly 29 years after hostilities ceased. That means it could take a few more high-profile failures for Hollywood to finally learn its lesson. * * * Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at HollywoodInToto.com.

This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** Increased rates of sexlessness have been documented around the world, among all age cohorts, regardless of marital status. But what’s most astounding is that this trend is particularly pronounced among younger generations, including millennials (born from 1980 to 1994) and Gen Z (born from 1995 to 2012), with roughly one in three men and one in five women saying they haven’t had sex in the past year. From research I’ve conducted, it seems the sex recession is the culmination of a number of factors, including social media and dating apps, new cultural norms post-#MeToo, and technological advancements in romantic surrogates such as AI companions, sex robots, and platforms like OnlyFans, to name a few. Although all ages risk falling prey to these artificial replacements for sex, members of Gen Z are particularly vulnerable because they grew up enmeshed in this technology before experiencing the real thing. While social conservatives may celebrate the recent celibacy of young singles, the reasons they are abstaining from sex should be concerning. Interventions that have the capacity to modify our biology, mating psychology, and mental health are driving these trends. For example, two common types of pharmaceutical drugs — selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, a class of antidepressants) and the birth control pill — are known to decrease libido as a side effect. Although these interventions have the potential to aid many, we must ask what their influence has been on young people. Many begin their usage in childhood, and this has the potential to affect them profoundly. More than a third of Gen Z report taking prescription medication for a mental health condition. If an individual is uncomfortable in social situations or when required to have face-to-face interactions, they will be less inclined to want to meet new people in the context of dating. Sexual intimacy requires being comfortable in your body, being present in your head, and being willing to put yourself in a position of possibly being judged or rejected by someone else. Rumination, negative self-perception, and self-consciousness, which are hallmark symptoms of depression and anxiety, can additionally convince a person (erroneously) to prefer online avenues as a sexual outlet because they exist behind the safety of a screen. So, it is a positive thing that young people are seeking help to improve their situation. If a person is not emotionally healthy, even if she does desire companionship, it will be challenging to vet a partner properly and find the right person for herself. We know little, however, about the long-term effects of SSRIs on adolescents’ sexual development. This is concerning, considering SSRIs have been approved for use in children as young as 6-years-old, and nearly 4% of children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 in the United States take them. One recent study using a rodent model showed that exposure to an SSRI was associated with changes to a part of the brain that is involved in emotion regulation and stress management. There are also data emerging about a condition called post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, which describes sexual side effects from SSRIs (and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) that persist after a person has ceased taking the medication. This can include a loss of sexual desire and arousal, numbness in one’s sexual anatomy, and sexual dysfunction, including erectile dysfunction and difficulty reaching orgasm. In some cases, individuals who began these medications during their teenage years report a blunting of emotions and an inability to feel crushes, foreclosing their desire in adulthood to be sexually active. The birth control pill may be contributing to the use of SSRIs because taking the pill is associated with an increase in mood disorders like depression. In the U.S., more than one in 10 females aged 15 to 49 are taking the pill. Many young girls will initially start for non-contraceptive reasons, such as regulating their menstrual cycle or alleviating associated cramps. Although these teenage girls may not be sexually active, their mating psychology is nevertheless being affected. If an individual’s emotions and personality are biologically altered during their formative years, this can lead to long-lasting changes. Similar to SSRIs, little is known about how the pill affects adolescent brain development. It has been hypothesized that taking the pill may affect the process by which girls’ brains become feminized and the way they process information. Because the pill halts ovulation and thereby a woman’s ability to become pregnant, it can dampen not only her interest in sex and interacting with men but also the sexual signals she sends out to the men she does encounter. Men can tell when a woman is ovulating, and if she is, they are more likely to pursue her. This is not to blame women on the pill for the sexual inactivity plaguing young people, or to suggest that women should not take hormonal birth control. Instead, I would argue that women and girls deserve access to factual, unbiased information about the potential consequences associated with taking this medical technology, especially during critical developmental windows. Those who eschew pharmaceuticals may still be unintentionally consuming these drugs through the water supply. Studies in fish have shown that synthetic estrogen in birth control pills can induce intersex conditions, and early-life exposure to antidepressants, including SSRIs, can alter the programming of the endocrine system. Although more research needs to be done to know whether the same disturbing effects apply to humans, I wonder to what extent this exposure is contributing to men’s declining testosterone levels. To bring things back full circle, low testosterone is commonly associated with depression and reduced sex drive. Until we address the true causes of the mental health epidemic flourishing today, no amount of technological distraction will cure this issue or alleviate our sexlessness. The purported technological solutions for our social and sexual disconnection will only make us sicker. Physical activity, adequate sleep, effective psychotherapy, and minimal use of social media, endocrine-disrupting products, and ultraprocessed foods are relevant places to start. Those of us who were blessed to grow up in an era predating smartphones and internet toxicity must support younger generations in finding a path back to normalcy. *** Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist and the author of “Sextinction: The Decline of Sex and the Future of Intimacy.” She was featured in Matt Walsh’s film “What is a Woman?” Visit her at DrDebraSoh.com.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a fundraising email shortly after former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-CA) resignation amid sexual misconduct allegations, including rape accusations, using the vacancy to urge donors to help Democrats quickly reclaim the seat. “With a very slim Republican majority in Congress, I was not going to give Mike Johnson even a single extra day before filling this seat,” Newsom wrote in the email, which was sent by his Campaign for Democracy PAC, according to National Journal. Swalwell stepped down Tuesday as multiple investigations were launched into the allegations. He is now under investigation by the Justice Department, the Manhattan District Attorney, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. No charges have been filed against the Democrat, but the disturbing claims led to his resignation from Congress and exit from the California governor’s race. At a Tuesday press conference, model Lonna Drewes accused Swalwell of raping her during an alleged 2018 encounter. “He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness,” Drewes said. “And I thought I died. I did not consent to any sexual activity.” At least one other woman has claimed that Swalwell raped her. Others alleged that the Democrat sent them inappropriate messages over Snapchat, CNN reported. Despite the nature of the allegations, Newsom’s email did not address them directly, instead focusing on the political stakes of the vacancy and the narrow Republican majority in the House. The message concluded with a fundraising appeal from Newsom’s political action committee, asking recipients to donate $35. Newsom has said the special election, scheduled for August 18, is the earliest date allowed under state law. Republicans criticized the move, arguing Newsom has not shown the same urgency in similar situations. Besides rape accusations, others alleged that the Democrat sent them inappropriate messages over Snapchat, CNN reported. The timing has drawn criticism from Republicans, who argue Newsom has not applied the same urgency in similar situations. The Daily Wire previously reported that Newsom scheduled a special election for the late to fill the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s (R-CA) right-leaning seat months after his death earlier this year. In another case, the seat of former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) remained vacant for nearly a year following his 2020 resignation. can Hunter (R-CA) was left vacant for nearly a year following his resignation in 2020. “It’s another example of how Gavin Newsom, he doesn’t care about stripping people of their voice and their representation as long as it politically benefits him,” state Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-CA) told The Daily Wire. Republicans currently hold a narrow 218-213 majority in the House, raising the stakes for quickly filling vacant seats. The Daily Wire reached out to the Newsom’s PAC and office for comment.

Turkish Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was held in ICE detention last year after her visa was revoked over alleged “activities in support of Hamas,” has returned home to Turkey following a legal settlement with the United States. The State Department canceled Ozturk’s student visa in 2024 after she co-authored an op-ed in her college newspaper calling on Tufts to recognize the “Palestinian genocide” and to divest from companies with ties to Israel. In March 2025, ICE agents arrested Ozturk while walking on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts. She spent six weeks in federal custody before a judge ordered her release. WATCH