OUR PICKSHired Guns Make Sure School Cyberattacks Stay Hidden | Damage to Federal Medical Research Is Already Done | DeepSeek and the Future of U.S.-China Competition, and more

Google Lifts a Ban on Using Its AI for Weapons and Surveillance  (Paresh Dave and Caroline Haskins, Wired)
Google published principles in 2018 barring its AI technology from being used for sensitive purposes. Weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term, those guidelines are being overhauled.

Trump Administration Moves to End Deportation Protections for 348,000 Venezuelans  (Reuters / VOA News)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday moved to remove protection against deportation from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S., part of President Donald Trump’s expanding immigration crackdown.
The decision means about 348,000 Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status, more than half of all Venezuelans in the program, could be deported and lose work permits in April, according to a government notice.
The notice said the protections were contrary to U.S. interests and no longer justified by conditions in Venezuela.

Trump Administration Opens Antisemitism Inquiries at 5 Colleges, Including Columbia and Berkeley  (Associated Press, VOA News)
The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five U.S. universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.
It’s part of President Donald Trump’s promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than the Biden administration, which settled a flurry of cases with universities in its final weeks. It comes the same day the Justice Department announced a new task force to root out antisemitism on college campuses.
In an order signed last week, Trump called for aggressive action to fight anti-Jewish bias on campuses, including the deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

Trump Administration to Remove 4 Major News Outlets from Pentagon Office Space  (Katie Robertson, New York Times)
The New York Times, NBC News, NPR and Politico will be replaced by outlets including the right-wing site Breitbart News as part of a “new annual media rotation,”a spokesman said.

The Damage to Federal Medical Research Is Already Done  (Jane Smith-Rogers, Wired)
Clinical trials may have to be scrapped, research applications will be pushed back, and unpaid researchers will quickly leave the sector—even if the Trump administration’s funding pause is only temporary.

Meet the Hired Guns Who Make Sure School Cyberattacks Stay Hidden  (Mark Keierleber, Wired)
An investigation into more than 300 cyberattacks against US K–12 schools over the past five years shows how schools can withhold crucial details from students and parents whose data was stolen.

What DeepSeek Revealed About the Future of U.S.-China Competition  (Matt Sheehan and Scott Singer, Foreign Policy)
Washington faces a daunting but critical task.

The “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” of the United States Government  (Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic)
Elon Musk’s bureaucratic coup is under way.