On this day in conspiracies

In the late afternoon, Renato Nicolai, a farmer in his mid-fifties, is working on a terrace at his property near Trans-en-Provence in the Var, southern France. He reports hearing a low whistling sound and seeing a grey, ovoid or disc-shaped object descend, briefly settle on a lower terrace a short distance away, then rise and depart at speed. He says it left marks on the ground where it had rested.

The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder tapes reach the ICAO in Paris, giving investigators for the first time a direct record of the flight's final hours.

The High Aim 6 is spotted drifting in calm water roughly 80 nautical miles (about 150 km) east of Rowley Shoals, some 320 km off the north-west coast of Western Australia, inside the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone. No one is aboard.

Beginning around dusk, several dozen people across Erath County report bright lights low over the countryside near Stephenville and Dublin. Steve Allen, a local pilot and businessman, describes a very large, silent set of flashing lights that streaked across the sky at extreme speed, and says two aircraft appeared to follow it.

In the early morning, Iran fires ballistic missiles at US forces at bases in Iraq. Iranian air defences around Tehran are on their highest alert, anticipating a possible US counterstrike.

President Félix Tshisekedi pardons those still imprisoned over the case, and about two dozen men, including Eddy Kapend, are freed from Kinshasa's Makala prison after roughly two decades behind bars. Kapend has always denied any role in the killing.

Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters, many demanding military intervention on the basis of the fraud narrative, storm Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in Brasília a week after Lula's inauguration.

CNBC reports on where the proposal actually stands: no payments have been approved by Congress, and the idea faces steep legal and budgetary obstacles. Fact-checkers (including WRAL) rate the 'Trump issued a $2,000 tariff dividend, act now' claim false.

Coverage from Variety, The National and others frames Conformity Gate as an unconfirmed fan theory that failed its own test, with the promised episode 'missing in action' and no evidence Netflix ever planned one.