Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
House Republicans on Thursday unveiled legislation to extend for three years a surveillance authority that permits the collection of communications from non-U.S. persons located abroad without a warrant.
The U.S. Capitol building on April 22, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch TimesThe House Rules Committee released the nine-page bill, which would renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) through April 30, 2029. Section 702 authorizes warrantless surveillance targeting foreign individuals overseas, though critics note that Americans’ communications can be incidentally collected under the program. The proposed legislation does not include a requirement for warrants, despite ongoing calls for such reforms.
The House Rules Committee will look to advance the bill on April 27.
Congress passed a short-term extension of Section 702 on April 17 that expires on April 30.
Under the bill, the comptroller general would be required to submit a report within one year of enactment to key congressional committees, including the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and the intelligence committees in both chambers. The report would present the results of an audit assessing whether current targeting procedures appropriately limit surveillance under Section 702.
The legislation also explicitly prohibits the intentional targeting of U.S. citizens.
Lawmakers from both parties have pushed for additional safeguards, including requiring warrants when querying the communications of Americans that are incidentally collected. However, President Donald Trump has advocated for a “clean” extension of Section 702 without new restrictions.
Trump has argued that the authority is essential for national security, while also criticizing past uses of FISA. He has cited what he described as serious abuses of the law, referencing disclosures that the FBI used FISA authorities during its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign.
The president said the military “desperately needs” Section 702 of FISA to support national security efforts, particularly in light of the conflict with Iran.
At the same time, Trump emphasized the importance of maintaining Section 702 in light of ongoing military operations and global threats. He stated that military leaders consider the authority vital for protecting U.S. interests, including troops and diplomats abroad, and for responding quickly to potential threats.
“I have spoken to many Generals about this, and they consider it VITAL. Not one said, even tacitly, that they can do without it—especially right now with our brilliant Military Operation in Iran.”
In April 2024, Congress approved a two-year extension of Section 702, which included 56 reforms aimed at preventing misuse of Americans’ data. That legislation, signed into law by President Joe Biden, introduced stricter rules for accessing the database, enhanced training requirements, higher-level approval for queries involving politically sensitive individuals, and penalties for intentional misuse.
A review by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General found more than 60,000 noncompliant FBI queries of Section 702 data in 2021.
Joseph Lord and Savannah Hulsey Pointer contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden Fri, 04/24/2026 - 07:35Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has launched a preview version of its long-awaited V4 model, ending months of silence from one of China's most closely watched AI labs and arriving a year after its R1 release sparked U.S. market turmoil and concerns across Silicon Valley AI firms.
The rollout signals that DeepSeek is full steam ahead in the frontier-model race:
DeepSeek-V4 Preview is officially live & open-sourced! Welcome to the era of cost-effective 1M context length.
DeepSeek-V4-Pro: 1.6T total / 49B active params. Performance rivaling the world's top closed-source models.
DeepSeek-V4-Flash: 284B total / 13B active params. Your fast, efficient, and economical choice.
🚀 DeepSeek-V4 Preview is officially live & open-sourced! Welcome to the era of cost-effective 1M context length.
🔹 DeepSeek-V4-Pro: 1.6T total / 49B active params. Performance rivaling the world's top closed-source models.
🔹 DeepSeek-V4-Flash: 284B total / 13B active params.… pic.twitter.com/n1AgwMIymu
The open-source model comes in the V4 Flash and V4 Pro series, with DeepSeek saying its V4 "leads all current open models, trailing only Gemini-3.1-Pro."
In terms of reasoning, the startup said it "beats all current open models in Math/STEM/Coding, rivaling top closed-source models."
DeepSeek-V4-Pro
🔹 Enhanced Agentic Capabilities: Open-source SOTA in Agentic Coding benchmarks.
🔹 Rich World Knowledge: Leads all current open models, trailing only Gemini-3.1-Pro.
🔹 World-Class Reasoning: Beats all current open models in Math/STEM/Coding, rivaling top… pic.twitter.com/D04x5RjE3L
Counterpoint Research Vice President Neil Shah told CNBC that "DeepSeek's V4 preview is a serious flex."
According to Counterpoint Principal AI Analyst Wei Sun, V4's benchmark profile suggests the model could deliver "excellent agent capability at significantly lower cost."
Ivan Su, Senior Equity Analyst at Morningstar, told CNBC that V4's debut is unlikely to deliver the same market shock as R1 did a little more than a year ago, largely because Wall Street has already priced in the view that Chinese AI can be built and deployed at a lower cost.
Goldman analyst Christopher Moniz commented on the market reaction in overnight trading in China, where "GPU and domestic chip stocks rallied after DeepSeek unveiled preview versions of its latest V4 AI model."
Moniz continued, "News of DeepSeek's latest AI model created weakness in AI application names - Minimax (100 HK) -9.4% and Knowledge Atlas (2513 HK) -9.1%. Conversely, China domestic chipmakers spiked - HHS (1347 HK) +15.2% and SMIC (981 HK) +10%. Tencent (700 HK) -0.4% on mixed feedback regarding its new Hy3 model release, with locals noting it is less efficient than Minimax M2.7 launched a month ago"
One key question is the chip stack behind V4: which chips it was trained on and which hardware it runs on during inference. Huawei has already claimed that its latest AI computing cluster, powered by Ascend AI processors, can support V4, suggesting that Beijing's domestic AI hardware ecosystem is powering DeepSeek's ongoing frontier-model push.
Tyler Durden Fri, 04/24/2026 - 07:15