News Above the Noise—April 2, 2023
1. Fierce Storms and Tornadoes Tear Through the South and Midwest
On Friday, more than 50 preliminary tornado reports were recorded in at least seven states, and by Saturday afternoon officials were reporting significant, devastating impact. Deaths have been reported in Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama, Indiana, and Mississippi. Extensive damage was also reported in parts of the South and Midwest, and Arkansas and Missouri have declared states of emergency as tens of thousands were left without power. For more on this developing story, click here.
2. Indicted and Running for Office? Trump Isn’t the First
When it was announced this week that Donald Trump would face criminal charges, many of the headlines focused on the fact that he’s the first former president in history to be indicted on criminal charges. And while that may be true, Trump isn’t the first political candidate—or even the first presidential candidate—to run for office after being charged with or convicted of crimes, according to a New York Times article published yesterday. For more on who those candidates were, as well as further analysis of what Trump’s indictment could mean for his presidential bid, click here.
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3. Artificial Intelligence Experts Urge AI Pause, Citing Risks to Society
There’s no denying that the advent of Microsoft-backed OpenAI (a.k.a. Chat GPT) is changing the game when it comes to what AI can do and how it could change life as we know it. This week, a group of tech leaders voiced their own concerns in a letter issued by the Future of Life Institute. “AI stresses me out,” Elon Musk, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, said earlier this month. To read more about this letter—signed by more than 1,000 people, including Musk— click here.
4. This Element is Critical to Human Flourishing, Yet Missing from the News
In an Opinion piece for The Washington Post last week, Amanda Ripley wrote about hope, and how it’s sadly missing from the majority of our mainstream media. “The word hope sounds gauzy and fey, like rainbows and sunsets. It feels like a gateway drug to delusion and denial,” Ripley wrote. “But rainbows and sunsets are explicable phenomena, the scattering of sunlight in the distance, and it turns out that hope is, too.” To read Ripley’s thoughtful think-piece, click here.
5. First OTC Opioid Overdose Treatment Gets FDA Approval
Drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental deaths in the U.S., according to the latest statistics—and a majority of those involve opioids. In an effort to combat these deaths, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an over-the-counter version of the opioid overdose reversal drug called naloxone. The drug will be sold as a single dose given as a nasal spray, and likely won’t be available until late summer, according to the drug’s manufacturer. For more information on this story, click here.
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