Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In Texas, there are still more than 173 people missing: “Authorities have confirmed at least 119 deaths across six counties, including 59 adults and 36 children in Kerr County.”
* On a related note: “Four days after the devastating flash floods in Texas Hill Country, local officials and law enforcement in Kerr County couldn’t provide basic details of the emergency response — including whether the emergency management coordinator, who decided to order evacuations, was awake when the waters started rising.”
* The flooding is brutal in New Mexico, too: “At least three people were killed by historic flash floods in a New Mexico mountain community that suffered devastating wildfires last year, officials said late Tuesday. The remote village of Ruidoso, about 180 miles south of Albuquerque, said that a 4-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy and a man aged 40 to 50 were all ‘swept downstream by the unprecedented floodwaters.’”
* Apparently, it’s possible for a democracy to hold a former president accountable for alleged crimes: “A South Korean court early Thursday approved the new arrest of former President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges related to his brief imposition of martial law in December, accepting a special prosecutor’s claim that he poses a risk of destroying evidence.”
* A slow-moving fiasco at the platform formerly known as Twitter: “Linda Yaccarino on Wednesday said she’s stepping down as CEO of X, roughly two years after she assumed the top role at Elon Musk’s social media platform. … Her announcement follows a series of unflattering news stories about her boss and about X, most recently focused on Grok, the AI chatbot commissioned for the site, which has been spewing antisemitic misinformation since its code was updated last week.”
* An underappreciated diplomatic debacle: “The Trump administration’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was overseeing a deal to free several Americans and dozens of political prisoners held in Venezuela in exchange for sending home about 250 Venezuelan migrants the United States had deported to El Salvador. But the deal never happened. Part of the reason: President Trump’s envoy to Venezuela was working on his own deal, one with terms that Venezuela deemed more attractive.”
* This ruling was issued by Trump-appointed judges: “A federal appeals court has voided Biden-era plans to crack down on tough-to-cancel subscriptions, which would have required businesses to make it as easy to cancel subscriptions as it is to sign up to them.” * I have no idea if this event made an impact with policymakers, but it struck me as a good idea: “Roughly two dozen [scientists stood] in the lobby of the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill for what resembled a science fair — but with a twist. Instead of students presenting class projects, the event featured leading researchers from across the country standing in front of posters outlining their work — and the federal cuts that now threaten it.” * Noted without comment: “Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, is once again facing public criticism for being out of the country when his state was hit hard by a natural disaster. … Photographs widely circulated online appeared to show Mr. Cruz touring the Parthenon in Athens with his family on Saturday, suggesting that the senator may have continued with at least some of his previously scheduled sightseeing as the death toll climbed.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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