OUR PICKSGrowing Risk of Partisan Extremism | New Agenda for School Safety Research | Anti-Vaxxers Are Grifting Off the Measles Outbreak—Claiming a Bioweapon Caused It, and more

Anti-Vaxxers Are Grifting Off the Measles Outbreak—and Claim a Bioweapon Caused It  (David Gilbert, Wired)
Activists affiliated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are selling a “measles treatment and prevention protocol” for hundreds of dollars, including supplements supposedly formulated by AI.

The Shapiro Attack and the Growing Risk of Partisan Extremism  (Daniel Byman and Riley McCabe, Lawfare)
The arson attack on the governor’s residence is the latest in a growing wave of violence directed at politicians and other government figures.

Targeting of Cartels as Terrorists Puts New Defensive Tools in Play  (Stavan Singh and David Luckey, The Hill)
In February, eight organizations, drug cartels and other groups responsible for mass violence, kidnappings, bribery and more, were added to the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. 
The Trump administration said combating transnational criminal organizations is a priority; this could shape U.S. foreign security policy in the coming years. 
The Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, in particular, have become powerful non-state actors beyond Latin America, establishing a presence in over 100 countries, where they are involved in the production and trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. 
These groups form partnerships and agreements with local criminal outfits. In some extreme cases, they carve out satellite “narco-states” where they tyrannize residents and move contraband and cash with impunity.
Designating these groups as terrorists makes new legal and policy tools available that could be the key to stopping transnational criminal organizations’ ambitions for global expansion.  

A New Agenda for School Safety Research  (Pauline Moore, Brian A. Jackson, and Melissa Kay Diliberti, RAND)
Kindergarten to 12th grade (K–12) schools in the United States face complex and ever-evolving school safety problems. Although incidents of serious violence (such as school shootings) make headlines, less newsworthy—yet all too common—threats and incidents of lower-level violence (such as student fights) affect schools each day. New challenges also regularly emerge, such as harsh cyberbullying on social media or the use of new technologies (for example, artificial intelligence) to generate and spread harmful deepfake images of peers or school staff. Building and maintaining safe and supportive learning environments are serious challenges for educators and school staff. At the same time, the ways in which schools have responded to safety-related issues have also drawn controversy.

Data Brokerage and the Third-Country National Security Problem  (Justin Sherman, Lawfare)
Restricting direct data broker sales to China is a start—but privacy and security controls on personal data must go much broader.

U.S. Eyes Pakistan’s Mineral Wealth  (Michael Kugelman, Foreign Policy)
But investment in tapping the country’s reserves would be a dangerous gamble.

Marco Rubio Kills State Department Anti-Propaganda Shop, Promises ‘Twitter Files’ Sequel  (Noah Shachtman, Wired)
With the Global Engagement Center shut down, the State Department is now set to investigate whether past US efforts against foreign propaganda amounted to censorship of Americans.

Here’s What Happened to Those SignalGate Messages  (Dell Cameron, Wired)
A lawsuit over the Trump administration’s infamous Houthi Signal group chat has revealed what steps departments took to preserve the messages—and how little they actually saved.