OUR PICKSThe Weapons of Mass Destruction AI Security Gap | The Trump Administration Wants to Put Antifa on Trial | DHS Plans to Detain Refugees for Further Vetting, and more

The Weapons of Mass Destruction AI Security Gap  (Rebecca Hersman  and Cassidy Nelson, Time)
Likely driven by both genuine concern and the risk of legal liability, frontier AI companies have also shown leadership, reflected in the Frontier AI Safety Commitments at the Seoul Summit. These companies have publicly committed to mitigating risks across the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNe) spectrum.
Yet, despite these steps, an alarming security gap remains. While it is good that companies are focusing on pandemics, the ecosystem is overly focused on a single “lone wolf virus terrorist” model as the most serious threat. Significantly less attention is being paid to all other risk scenarios. The focus on individual actors leaves state-based and terrorist group threats dangerously under-examined.

He Made a Fake ICE Deportation Tip Line. Then a Kindergarten Teacher Called.  (Drew Harwell. Washington Post)
A Nashville comedian’s deportation hotline, set up as a joke, has gone viral among viewers who say it shows the “banality of evil personified.”

On a New Banner, Trump Evokes the Shadow World of Authoritarian Icons  (Philip Kennicott, Washington Post)
The Justice Department signals, with a public display, that it is now wholly loyal to the current president.

DOJ Struggles as White House Presses on Voter Fraud  (Perry Stein, Patrick Marley and Isaac Arnsdorf, Washington Post)
Efforts to prosecute noncitizen voters have been slowed by lack of evidence, officials say, while Trump aides push for a broader crackdown.

New DHS Memo Outlines Plan to Detain Refugees for Further Vetting  (Arelis R. Hernández and Teo Armus, Washington Post)
Resettlement organizations said the updated guidance represents a dramatic shift in how refugees are treated after being legally permitted to enter the United States.

The Trump Administration Wants to Put Antifa on Trial  (Economist)
A case in Texas offers an opportunity to do so.

The DOJ Isn’t Built for This  (Will Gottsegen, The Atlantic)
The department can’t keep up with President Trump’s agenda.
The mission and purpose of the department has been overhauled—many of its core functions have been politicized since Trump’s return to office. The president has directed the department to pursue his personal enemies and has replaced career DOJ employees with inexperienced MAGA loyalists, sometimes to the detriment of his own agenda. Take the recent prosecution of two longtime Trump rivals, New York State Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. In September, after an acting U.S. attorney reportedly decided that the case against Comey was too weak to pursue, the president pressured him to resign and replaced him with one of his former lawyers, Lindsey Halligan, who had never prosecuted a case before. Halligan appeared to make several fundamental errors in presenting Comey’s case, and her cases against James and Comey have since been thrown out. She resigned in January, a few months after a judge ruled that she had been illegally appointed.
The New York Times reported that Bondi’s former chief of staff put out an open call on social media for lawyers who “support President Trump and anti-crime agenda” to privately message him about jobs within the department. These were, until recently, some of the most prestigious positions in the American legal system. Now the halls are empty enough that a department affiliate is seeking out applicants online.