Our daily hop, skip, and jump around the world

🚀🇯🇵 Japan is seeking to become the fifth country to land on the Moon. JAXA, the country’s space agency, successfully launched a rocket yesterday carrying two separate missions: a lunar probe, and a high-tech X-ray telescope aimed at gathering more information about how the universe was created. The probe, which represents Japan’s third attempt to land on the Moon over the past year, is projected to make its final lunar approach in February.

🇲🇽⚖️ Mexico’s Supreme Court struck down all federal criminal penalties for abortion. The high court ruled that national laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights, meaning all federal public health services and institutions in Mexico must offer abortion access to anyone who requests it. Mexico’s Supreme Court previously overturned the state of Coahuila’s abortion ban in 2021, setting a precedent for all 32 states across the country – but the procedure is still illegal in 20 states due to the lengthy process of enforcing said ruling.

🇹🇷 A global rescue effort is underway after an American cave diver fell ill on an expedition in Turkey. Mark Dickey, a 40-year-old experienced cave diver, suddenly began suffering from stomach bleeding while ~3,200 feet below the entrance to Turkey’s Morca cave system. Though rescuers, including a Hungarian doctor, have reached Dickey and partially treated his injuries, it could be days or weeks before they can get him out of the cave, since many areas are too narrow to fit a stretcher.