chore: Update Gradle and refactor EventsViewModel for conciseness

This commit updates the project's Gradle wrapper and applies minor code refactors to improve readability in the view model.

**🚀 Build & Infrastructure:**
*   **Gradle**: Upgraded Gradle wrapper from `9.3.1` to `9.4.1`.
*   **IDE**: Added missing XML declaration to `.idea/misc.xml`.

**🧩 Logic & Refactoring:**
*   **`EventsViewModel.kt`**: Refactored `fallbackItems` and error handling logic to use the idiomatic Kotlin `ifEmpty` extension instead of explicit `isNotEmpty` checks when recovering state during a refresh.

Author: StitchMl