Extra, Extra

Miner Expense: “Authorities are particularly under fire for their tactics last year, when they cut off food and other supplies to the miners underground for a period of time. It was an attempt to ‘smoke them out,’ a South African Cabinet minister said, adding that authorities would not help the miners because they were ‘criminals.'” A crazy and tragic story: South African police end mine rescue operation with at least 78 dead and 246 survivors.

+ Can You Confirm? After yesterday’s Pete Hegseth exchanges, today’s confirmation hearings seemed almost normal. Here’s the latest on the questioning of Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio, and others.

+ Arresting Development: BBC: “Yoon Suk Yeol has become South Korea’s first sitting president to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire to take him into custody.” (Yoon was arrested on charges of insurrection and a failed martial law order. In America, this is known as being electable.)

+ Geofencing: Depending on the SCOTUS decision, TikTok is preparing for a full US shutdown on Sunday. We hear a lot less about another industry absolutely dominated by a Chinese made brand. DJI just made a very big change to its drone software. DJI will no longer stop drones from flying over airports, wildfires, and the White House.

+ Red Alert: “The US Food and Drug Administration has banned the use of red dye No. 3 in food, beverages and ingested drugs, more than 30 years after scientists discovered links to cancer in animals.” (Thankfully, blue is my favorite flavor.)

+ REM Sleeps: “In retrospect, it is kind of crazy that a group of four indie rockers from a college town in Georgia who wrote jangly wistful songs and were forever obsessed (and successful!) with keeping their indie credibility became the biggest rock band in the world. The band had its moment, it made some truly beautiful, often downright perfect songs, and then it moved on.” Will Leitch in WaPo (Gift Article) on REM. How the biggest rock band in the world disappeared.