Surveillance Act, Nebraska volleyball, and stolen luggage.

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Big Stories

Congress approves short-term extension of warrantless surveillance powers

Congress has approved a short-term extension of the nation's warrantless surveillance powers, delaying a decision on how to reform the law until the new year.

• What's happening: On Thursday, the House approved the National Defense Authorization Act and sent it to President Biden. The NDAA contains a controversial four-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), permitting the intelligence community to collect online communications from non-U.S. people outside the country.

• Dig deeper: FISA permits the government to surveil foreigners abroad, but the communications of Americans interacting with those under surveillance can also be collected. Intelligence agencies have used legal loopholes to spy domestically, conducting hundreds of thousands of warrantless searches for American’s private communications each year. In June, the FBI was caught monitoring a U.S. Senator without meeting the standard for running the search.

• Looking ahead: Conservative lawmakers argued that the FISA extension should be a stand-alone bill. Because the NDAA includes other pressing components, American’s privacy rights are usually overlooked in order to pass through measures like pay raises, said Rep Chip Roy (R-Texas). The intelligence community considers the extension crucial for national security. While privacy rights groups criticize the move and will oppose any 2024 reauthorization that lacks a warrant requirement for Section 702.

Chilean voters reject conservative constitution

Chilean voters rejected on Sunday a proposed conservative constitution to replace the country’s dictatorship-era charter.

• Details: The proposed document, written largely by conservative councilors, was more conservative than the current one and emphasized free-market principles. The controversial articles included protection for the unborn, potentially impacting abortion laws, and house arrest for terminally ill prisoners. They also included an article that would have cancelled property tax, which experts have criticized, saying taxation should be written in codes and laws, not in a constitution.

• Background: Chile’s current constitution was written during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and is considered rigid and outdated. A new charter has been in the works since 2019 when street protests prompted the push for reform. But in 20222, Chileans voted against a new, more progressive constitution that would have established Indigenous territories, and prioritized the environment and gender equality.

• Voter Fatigue: Voting is mandatory in Chile, but its people are exhausted after 10 elections of various types in less that 2½ years. And many voters felt that their choices were limited to the bad or the worse — the current constitution will remain in place since the proposed changes failed. The 2022 reform leaned too far left while this year’s leans too far right. One young voter said that the new constitution was destined to fail as well because it was written without considering everyone and lacked compromise.

Texas sweeps Nebraska for 2nd straight NCAA volleyball title

The Texas women’s volleyball team beat Nebraska in the NCAA volleyball final to win its second straight NCAA title.

• Redemption in the same arena: In 2009, Texas women's volleyball had a heartbreaking defeat in the arena where they celebrated this year’s victory. Coach Jerritt Elliott termed the 2023 NCAA championship win as a much happier memory, replacing the painful title loss from 2009.

• Back-to-back sweeps: The Longhorns secured back-to-back national championships, and became the first team in NCAA women's volleyball history to win both titles via sweeps. As the No. 2 seed, they defeated three No. 1 seeds consecutively: Stanford in the regional final, Wisconsin in the national semifinals, and Nebraska in the championship. Texas finished the final against Nebraska with a dominant 25-22, 25-14, 25-11 score.

• Key players and stats: In front of a record-setting crowd of 19,727 at Amalie Arena, Madisen Skinner won her third NCAA title and was the championship's most outstanding player with dominant performances, including 18 kills in the semifinal against Pittsburgh and 16 kills in the final against Nebraska. Texas controlled the second set with their serving, notably O'Neal's 10 consecutive points, which was the turning point after a closely contested first set. Asjia O'Neal, Ella Swindle and Skinner were named to the all-tournament team.

Little Stories

U.S. News

• A shooter injured three people, one critically, on Saturday night in Austin Texas. Police officers arrived on scene and shot and killed the suspected gunman. The condition of the three wounded people hasn’t been made public. (More)

• The Republican Party of Florida voted to remove power from Chairman Christian Ziegler who is currently under criminal investigation for alleged sexual assault, including rape. Ziegler denies wrongdoing and has not been formally charged. (More)

• Cities along the East Coast are bracing for a major storm system that could bring heavy rain, high winds and severe thunderstorms. The system has already affected Florida and South Carolina, causing coastal flooding in the Tampa Bay area. The impacts are expected to continue through Monday. (More)

World

• Argentina is trying out a new tactic to squash anticipated protests following a currency devaluation by over 50% under President Javier Milei. Protesters will be identified through video or manual means and billed for the cost of deploying security forces to oversee their demonstrations. (More)

• European allies are urging Israel to pause its war with Hamas following a series of shootings, including the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages. The U.S. is expected to pressure Israel to scale back major combat operations during Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's visit. (More)

• Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the highest-ranking Vatican official tried in a criminal court, received a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence for embezzlement. Becciu currently lives in the Vatican and plans to appeal. Whether he will spend any time in jail remains to be seen. (More)

Business & Economy

• U.S. stock markets closed higher on Friday (S&P +0.01%, Nasdaq +0.35%, Dow +0.15%). (More)

• Uber's shares hit a new 52-week high last week as the ride-hailing app readies for its S&P 500 debut in today’s trading. The $127 billion firm is the largest U.S. company not yet included in the index. (More)

• Nearly 5,000 Teamsters employed by Anheuser-Busch have voted to approve a strike if a new contract cannot be signed before the current one expires on February 29. The union members, who run 12 US breweries, make up more than 25% of Anheuser-Busch's U.S. workforce. (More)

Sports & Entertainment

• The New York Jets 30-0 loss to the Miami Dolphins eliminated them from the post-season for a 13th straight year. They continue to own the longest playoff drought among the four major sports leagues. (More)

• Golden State Warriors’ guard Steph Curry further cemented his title as the best shooter in NBA history by making his 3,500th career three-pointer Saturday. He now has 532 more than Ray Allen, the next best on the all-time list. (More)

• Timothée Chalamet's "Wonka" musical has exceeded $150 million in global box office revenue. Opening at No. 1 in North America with $39 million and debuting internationally with $43.2 million, the film earned an extra $53.6 million overseas in its second weekend, reaching a total of $151.4 million worldwide. (More)

Science, Health, & Tech

• Researchers found that U.S. adults eat a meal’s worth of calories in snacks every day. The snacks averaged about 400 to 500 calories — often more than a typical breakfast. (More)

• An African scientist hopes to eradicate malaria by introducing gene-edited sterile male mosquitoes into the environment. This will prevent female mosquitoes who transmit the disease from producing new female offspring, ultimately reducing the population that causes malaria. (More)

• Starting this Saturday, TikTok is discontinuing its original "Creator Fund." Creators looking to make money from their content must now join the new "Creativity Program Beta," where they'll need to create videos longer than one minute to earn from the app. (More)

Extra Credit

The “American Dream” costs roughly $3.4M over a lifetime.

America’s most and least expensive dog breeds.

Oreo is introducing three new flavors next month.

Spanish airport workers were arrested for allegedly stealing over $2 million in goods from luggage.