Germany: Police rescued a group of men who entered a prohibited network of underground rock cellars carved into a cooled lava flow beneath the city of Mendig in Rhineland-Palatinate — 32 meters below the surface — and lost their way.
Brazil: Federal police seized a shotgun belonging to former president Jair Bolsonaro in Rio Grande do Sul, where the weapon had been held by the importing company. Separately, congressional leader Hugo Motta appointed Mendonça Filho as rapporteur for a constitutional amendment that would lower the age of criminal responsibility.
New Zealand: The government acknowledged that its much-hyped Roads of National Significance highway project would be slowed, with Transport Minister Chris Bishop conceding that 2023 election promises had been “very ambitious.” Meanwhile, a Hamilton accountant faced charges of stealing $1.3 million from clients.
Australia: A toddler declared dead in a hospital was later found alive and breathing in the morgue — a story that drew widespread coverage across Australian media. Melbourne, meanwhile, experienced its thickest fog of the season after the coldest day of the year.
Space: A study published in Nature Communications concluded that Jupiter’s moon Europa — long considered one of the most promising candidates for extraterrestrial life — likely lacks the geological conditions necessary to support it. The absence of tectonic movement, hydrothermal vents, or submarine volcanism on Europa’s ocean floor significantly diminishes the chances of habitable environments, contradicting decades of scientific speculation.
