DELFORGE, DAMIEN; BELOW, REGINA; WATHELET, VALENTIN; LOENHOUT, JORIS VAN; SPEYBROECK, NIKO

From the document: "In 2023, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded a total of 399 disasters related to natural hazards. These events resulted in 86,473 fatalities and affected 93.1 million people. The economic losses amounted to US$202.7 billion. The 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic was the most catastrophic event of the year in terms of mortality and economic damage, with 56,683 reported deaths and damage worth US$42.9 billion damage. This earthquake impacted an estimated 18 million people, a total for both countries, making it the second most impactful event in terms of affected individuals. The first was the 2023 Indonesian Drought, which affected 18.8 million people from June to September 2023. In the year under review there was a high level of disaster mortality, with a total of 86,473 deaths, exceeding the 20-year average of 64,148 deaths and the median value of 19,290 deaths for the same period, mainly due to the dramatic earthquake in Türkiye and Syria in February 2023, counting for two-thirds of the EM-DAT total deaths. The number of individuals affected by disasters, 93.1 million, is below the 2003-2022 annual average of 175.5 million."

CENTRE FOR RESEARCH ON THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF DISASTERS; CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN (1970- : FRENCH-SPEAKING); UNITED STATES. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 3 APR, 2024.

By Liam Michaud a a , b , * , Gillian Kolla c , d , Katherine Rudzinski Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada b e , Adrian Guta

The ongoing overdose and drug toxicity crisis in North America has contributed momentum to the emergence of safer supply prescribing and programs in Canada as a means of providing an alternative to the highly volatile unregulated drug supply. The implementation and scale-up of safer supply have been met with a vocal reaction on the part of news media commentators, conservative politicians, recovery industry representatives, and some prominent addiction medicine physicians. This reaction has largely converged around several narratives, based on unsubstantiated claims and anecdotal evidence, alleging that safer supply programs are generating a "new opioid epidemic", reflecting an emerging alignment among key institutional and political actors. Employing situational analysis method, and drawing on the policy studies and social science scholarship on moral panics, this essay examines news media coverage from January to July 2023, bringing this into dialogue with other existing empirical sources on safer supply (e.g. Coroner's reports, program evaluations, debates among experts in medical journals). We employ eight previously established criteria delineating moral panics to critically appraise public dialogue regarding safer supply, diverted medication, and claims of increased youth initiation to drug use and youth overdose. In detailing the emergence of a moral panic regarding safer supply, we trace historic continuities with earlier drug scares in Canadian history mobilized as tools of racialized poverty governance, as well as previous backlashes towards healthcare interventions for people who use drugs (PWUD). The essay assesses the claims of moral entrepreneurs against the current landscape of opioid use, diversion, and overdose among youth, notes the key role played by medical expertise in this and previous moral panics, and identifies what the convergence of these narratives materialize for PWUD and healthcare access, as well as the broader policy responses such narratives activate.

International Journal of Drug Policy 127 (2024) 104423

MASLEJ, NESTOR; FATTORINI, LOREDANA; PERRAULT, RAYMOND; PARLI, VANESSA; REUEL, ANKA; BRYNJOLFSSON, ERIK

From the document: "Welcome to the seventh edition of the AI Index report. The 2024 Index is our most comprehensive to date and arrives at an important moment when AI's influence on society has never been more pronounced. This year, we have broadened our scope to more extensively cover essential trends such as technical advancements in AI, public perceptions of the technology, and the geopolitical dynamics surrounding its development. Featuring more original data than ever before, this edition introduces new estimates on AI training costs, detailed analyses of the responsible AI landscape, and an entirely new chapter dedicated to AI's impact on science and medicine. The AI Index report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data related to artificial intelligence (AI). Our mission is to provide unbiased, rigorously vetted, broadly sourced data in order for policymakers, researchers, executives, journalists, and the general public to develop a more thorough and nuanced understanding of the complex field of AI." See pages 10 and 11 for a full list of contributors.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY. HUMAN-CENTERED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. 2024. 502p.

UNITED STATES. WHITE HOUSE OFFICE. BIDEN, JOSEPH R., JR.

From the webpage: "Critical infrastructure comprises the physical and virtual assets and systems so vital to the Nation that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on national security, national economic security, or national public health or safety. It is diverse and complex, and includes distributed networks, varied organizational structures, operating models, interdependent systems, and governance constructs. The United States is in the midst of a generational investment in the Nation's infrastructure. This investment, and the emergence of new technologies, presents an opportunity to build for the future. In the 21st century, the United States will rely on new sources of energy, modes of transportation, and an increasingly interconnected and interdependent economy. This modernization effort will ensure critical infrastructure provides a strong and innovative economy, protects American families, and enhances our collective resilience to disasters before they happen -- creating a resilient Nation for generations to come. The United States also faces an era of strategic competition with nation-state actors who target American critical infrastructure and tolerate or enable malicious actions conducted by non-state actors. [...] This memorandum advances our national unity of effort to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure."