OUR PICKSC.I.A. Expands Secret Drone Flights Over Mexico | Defense Tech Is Blowing Up Silicon Valley’s Beliefs | The Lone Star Energy Paradigm, and more

C.I.A. Expands Secret Drone Flights Over Mexico  (Julian E. BarnesMaria Abi-HabibEdward Wong and Eric Schmitt, New York Times)
The covert program, begun during the Biden administration and stepped up by President Trump, is hunting for the location of fentanyl labs.

“Iron Dome” for America: A Fresh Look at Homeland Defense  (Glen VanHerck and Pete Fesler, National Interest)
The “Iron Dome for America” proposal creates an enormous chance to think differently while the United States adapts its culture and processes to the strategic landscape it faces today. 

3D2A: The Second Amendment, 3D Printed Guns and Memed Accelerationism  (GNET)
In the ever-evolving landscape of global security, guns and small munitions are the lifeblood of political resistance. In the United States, the Second Amendment (2A) to the Constitution gives every US citizen the right to bear arms. At a time of heightened socio-political division in the US, emerging technologies like 3D printing provide an avenue of accelerationist mobilisation for absolutist 2A supporters. In this realm, domestic extremists have linked a constitutionalist framework to the online gun-printing community. Many of these inter-connected individuals and groups believe that the only way to resist the perceived anti-white, globalist agenda of the ultra-liberal left is through the assembly of armed resistance that is true to the Constitution’s Second Amendment. Because of loopholes in state and federal law, the 3D printing of weapons is largely unregulated and has gone underground, supplemented by unmoderated content on social media platform X. Despite some US lawmakers recently taking action to try and ban the production of untraceable ‘ghost guns’ using 3D printers, the sharing of downloadable files with step-by-step gun-printing instructions has become commonplace on mainstream social media.
This Insight will examine the nexus between the online 3D2A community and accelerationist ideology in an attempt to delineate how the promotion of gun printing technology is aligned with accelerationist rhetoric and active, budding domestic extremism.

AI Tools and the Alt-Right: A Double-Edged Sword for P/CVE  (Aurora Agnolon, GNET)
The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) tools represents a great resource to support prevent/counter-violent extremism (P/CVE) practitioners in their effort to reduce online extremism. However, AI is also exploited by extremists themselves, whereby they weaponize tools to avoid and evade content moderation for malign purposes. This Insight will present the main challenges posed by alt-right engagement with AI that hinder effective content removal. This includes extremists’ circumvention techniques and the exploitation of generative AI for propaganda purposes. Specifically, this Insight will assess the effectiveness of current AI programs used by platforms such as Meta and OpenAI. Finally, this Insight will provide potential solutions to contain the issue and slow the pace at which extremist propaganda is spread by enhancing the performance of AI tools in several areas to better serve P/CVE.  

Trump Cuts Target Next Generation of Scientists and Public Health Leaders  (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times)
A core group of so-called disease detectives, who track outbreaks, was apparently spared. But other young researchers are out of jobs.

Defense Tech Is Blowing Up Silicon Valley’s Beliefs  (Economist)
Hardware is all the rage. So is patriotism.

The Lone Star Paradigm: A Texan Blueprint for U.S. Energy Leadership in the Twenty-First Century  (Igor Logvinenko and Peter Vartanian, National Interest)
The blueprint for U.S. energy leadership is that it must establish a resilient domestic energy strategy to remain globally competitive. Texas already provides a compelling model of success.

Mexico Threatens to Escalate U.S. Gunmakers Lawsuit with Terror Charges  (AFP / Guardian)
Claudia Scheinbaum warns of reciprocal action if Washington designates country’s cartels as terrorist groups

DJI Will No Longer Stop Drones from Flying Over Airports, Wildfires, and the White House  (Sean Hollister, The Verge)
For over a decade, you couldn’t easily fly a DJI drone over restricted areas in the United States. DJI’s software would automatically stop you from flying over runways, power plants, public emergencies like wildfires, and the White House.
But confusingly, DJI is getting rid of its strong geofence. DJI will no longer enforce “No-Fly Zones,” instead only offering a dismissible warning — meaning only common sense, empathy, and the fear of getting caught by authorities will prevent people from flying where they shouldn’t.