Failure to launch
A privately developed rocket, the MOMO-2, topples over in flames Saturday seconds after a failed launch from a pad in Taiki, on the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan. No one was hurt. The rocket, developed by Japanese startup Interstellar Technologies, was supposed to reach as high as 62 miles into space. Company president Takahiro Inagawa said he thinks there was a glitch in the rocket’s main engine.
The situation was quickly deteriorating at several spots along the border with no shelter, running water or sanitary facilities, according to activists. Aid organizations have called on Jordan to open the border to the Syrians.
The new offensive by Syrian government forces aims to regain control of one of the country’s last two rebel-held territories. It has driven thousands from the city, but Jordan closed its border with Syria after a car bomb in June 2016 killed seven Jordanian border guards.
Once again, cease-fire in South Sudan may not hold
South Sudan government troops violated the country’s latest cease-fire just hours
after it began at midnight, the armed opposition said Saturday, while a government spokesman accused the rebels of attacking instead.
The competing claims indicated a shaky start to the latest attempt at ending a five-year civil war that has killed tens of thousands and created Africa’s largest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Millions are near famine, and aid delivery is often blocked.
President Salva Kiir and rival Riek Machar, Kiir’s former deputy, had agreed on the “permanent” ceasefire last week in neighboring Sudan. But opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said government forces and Sudanese rebel militias launched a “heavy joint attack” in Mboro, in the northwest, around 7 a.m. Saturday.
British health service ponders cutbacks in certain operations
Britain’s National Health Service has proposed cutting back on operations including breast reductions and antisnoring treatments as part of plans to save money and reduce “unnecessary or risky procedures.”
National medical director Stephen Powis said the health agency could save an estimated 200 million pounds ($264 million) a year by tightening the criteria for treatments in which the risks could outweigh the benefits.
The list of 17 treatments under consideration to be halted or reduced includes tonsil removals and procedures for carpal tunnel, hemorrhoids and varicose veins. Authorities will discuss the proposals next week.
Fed up with Trump, ambassador to Estonia says he’s quitting
The U.S. ambassador to Estonia — a NATO ally on the edge of Russia — abruptly resigned Friday, telling friends he cannot abide President Donald Trump’s apparent hostility toward institutions that have stabilized Europe since the end of the Cold War.
“The honorable course is to resign,” James Melville wrote on Facebook. “Having served under six presidents and 11 secretaries of state, I never really thought it would reach that point for me.”
He added: “For the President to say the (European Union) was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ or that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA,’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go.”
More ‘sonic attacks’ result in further US evacuations
The State Department has evacuated at least 11 Americans from China after abnormal sounds or sensations were reported by government employees at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, the consulate in Shanghai and the embassy in Beijing, officials said.
The cases in Guangzhou — and now possibly Shanghai and Beijing — are similar to a wave of mysterious illnesses that struck Americans working at the embassy in Havana, Cuba, beginning in fall 2016. Another American there was reported last month to have symptoms, bringing the total number of those afflicted by what have been described as “sonic attacks” to 25.