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Climate impacts ‘to cost world $7.9 trillion’ by 2050 (Patrick Galey, AFP)
Climate change could directly cost the world economy $7.9 trillion by mid-century as increased drought, flooding and crop failures hamper growth and threaten infrastructure, new analysis showed Wednesday.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Climate Change Resilience Index measured the preparedness of the world’s 82 largest economies and found that based on current trends the fallout of warming temperatures would shave off three percent of global GDP by 2050.
Its analysis, which assesses each country’s direct exposure to loss as climate change brings more frequent extreme weather events, found Africa was most at-risk, with 4.7 percent of its GDP in the balance.

Maryland Wonders: Is Drone Policing Helpful or Nosy? (Alison Knezevich, Baltimore Sun)
Other states have regulated drone surveillance by first requiring a search warrant, but Maryland currently does not require one. Some police departments are operating with restrictions, others are not.

Countering Disinformation: Right Direction, Insufficient Speed (Jakub Kalenský, Disinfo Portal)
The recent #StratComDC event ended with a closed session where the top government specialists from North America, Europe, and Asia discussed countermeasures against disinformation campaigns.
It is essential to keep pressing governments, private business, the media, and civil society to deliver more. In the United States, the Pentagon continues to issue warnings that we are still underestimating the problem. Even four years after the European Union’s (EU) most active response against disinformation—the formation of East StratCom—the European Parliament continues to call for the team to be strengthened and given adequate resources from the European Commission. Meanwhile the commissioners remain unsatisfied by tech behemoths’ lack-luster efforts to combat disinformation, and continue to threaten them with regulatory actions.

Billions of Fake Accounts: Who’s Messaging You on Facebook? (Matt Davis, Big Think)
The social media company’s recent transparency report claimed that it had taken down a staggering number of fake accounts — but it’s unlikely they’re catching them all.

Trump Plans Far-Reaching Set of New Immigration Regulations (Stuart Anderson, Forbes)
The Trump administration plans a far-reaching set of new immigration regulations that, if enacted, would profoundly affect employers, international students, H-1B and L-1 visa holders, EB-5 investors, asylum seekers and others. The proposed forthcoming rules are detailed in the administration’s just-released Unified Agenda for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

States and Feds Team Up to Protect Energy Grid from Cyberattacks (Tristan Willis, StateTech)
National GridEx training exercises showcase cybersecurity capabilities of state National Guard units.