A road trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery veered violently off course when four Americans were caught in a drug cartel shootout, leaving two dead and two held captive for days in a remote region of the Gulf coast before they were rescued from a wood shack, officials said Tuesday.

The surviving Americans were whisked back to U.S. soil on Tuesday in Brownsville, the southernmost tip of Texas and just across the border from Matamoros. The convoy of ambulances and SUVs was escorted by Mexican military Humvees and National Guard trucks with mounted machine guns.

Germany’s defense minister voiced caution Wednesday over media reports that a pro-Ukraine group was involved in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov rejected suggestions that the attack might have been ordered by Kyiv. “It’s like a compliment for our special forces, but this is not our activity,” he told reporters in Stockholm.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his officials have accused the U.S. of staging the pipeline explosions, which they described as a terror attack.

Immigration status will no longer disqualify more than 80,000 people from getting Minnesota drivers licenses under a bill signed by Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday.

Supporters of the effort, dubbed “driver’s licenses for all,” say it will improve public safety by ensuring that all drivers are licensed and insured, and have taken driver’s education courses. Backers included law enforcement, faith, business and immigrant rights groups.

The new law, which takes effect Oct. 1, reverses a 2003 change by then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty barring people without legal status from getting licenses, citing security concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Grant Kwapick can be reached at Kwap9061@stthomas.edu.