A man threatened an attack on a high-speed train in western Germany and lightly injured 12 passengers with firecrackers before being taken into custody in the town of Siegburg near Bonn, police said. The 20-year-old threw pyrotechnic objects filled with plastic pellets on board an Intercity Express (ICE) train travelling from Cologne to Frankfurt on Thursday evening, a police spokesman told dpa, citing witness statements.

Launch preparations have begun for the Artemis II mission, NASA’s planned lunar fly-around by four astronauts that will be the first moon trip in 53 years. Tensions were high as hydrogen fuel started flowing into the rocket hours ahead of the planned launch. The launch team needs to load more than 700,000 gallons of fuel (2.6 million liters) into the 32-story Space Launch System rocket on the pad before the Artemis II crew can board.

Negotiators from EU countries and the European Parliament have agreed on new safeguards for imported agricultural products under the pending Mercosur free trade agreement, despite persisting divisions over the approval of the deal with four Latin American countries. The controversial free trade deal is intended to boost trade between the European Union and the four Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay — but is still viewed critically by some in the EU.