Briefly

UNITED STATES

SpaceX puts Starship into orbit for 1st time

SpaceX launched its giant Starship rocket into orbit for the first time on Monday, aiming for six full laps around Earth to prove its readiness for NASA's Artemis moon program. The spacecraft almost did not achieve the long-desired goal after one of its engines shut down too soon. But with everything else working well and the bad engine no longer needed, flight controllers decided after several tense minutes to proceed as planned. The upper stage of Starship — the largest and most powerful rocket ever built — separated from its booster and continued to orbit with a speed of over 26,300 kilometers per hour and at an altitude of 277 kilometers.

SWITZERLAND

Voters reject plan to toughen neutrality

Swiss voters on Sunday roundly rejected a proposal to tighten their country's neutrality, final results showed, dismissing an initiative championed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party. While the Swiss widely embrace their neutrality, the initiative to enshrine a strict definition into the constitution exposed deep disagreement over what that neutrality entails. The proposal was rejected by 70.1 percent of voters, according to the final results. "This result is not a vote against neutrality," Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told journalists in Bern as the figures were announced. "Switzerland was neutral yesterday, it will be neutral today and it will remain neutral," he said.

ISRAEL

Settlement sanctions trigger diplomatic spat

Israel said on Sunday it was revoking the diplomatic status of Dutch diplomats who represent the Netherlands at the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah in response to Dutch sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said on Monday he regretted the "unnecessary" decision and that the Netherlands was weighing its response. Meanwhile, Israeli media reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made an unannounced visit to the United Arab Emirates to meet with the Gulf state's leader.

AGENCIES-XINHUA