National Journal reports on a Justice Department memo saying that Congress must settle its differences over extending provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act by Friday to avoid interruption in the National Security Agency’s (NSA) intelligence-gathering programs. The law is slated to expire on June 1, but the memo states that, after May 22, the NSA “will need to begin taking steps to wind down the bulk-telephone-metadata program in anticipation of a possible sunset in order to ensure that it does not engage in any unauthorized collection or use of the metadata.” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took to the Senate floor on Wednesday, speaking against the law’s renewal for 11 hours. Meanwhile, The Intercept reports on documents from the Snowden leaks that detail plans by the “Five Eyes” to allegedly hijack links to Google and Samsung app stores to place spyware on smartphones for surveillance.
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