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How bad is space tourism for the environment? And other space travel questions, answered.

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For many, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22583997/billionaires-blue-origin-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-rockets-planes-commercial-space-tourism">the rise of commercial space tourism</a> is a <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/jeff-bezoss-space-trip-is-one-giant-leap-for-inequality.html">vulgar display of wealth and power</a>. Amid several global crises, including climate change and a pandemic, billionaires are spending their cash on launching themselves into space for fun. When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told reporters after his first space tourism trip on Tuesday that Amazon customers and <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/29/21303643/amazon-coronavirus-warehouse-workers-protest-jeff-bezos-chris-smalls-boycott-pandemic">employees</a> had “paid” for his flight, that only intensified that criticism.
But critics won’t deter Bezos and the other superrich. Space tourism is now a reality for the people who can afford it — and it will have repercussions for everyone on Earth.
In fact, all signs indicate that the market for these trips is already big enough that they’ll keep happening. Jeff Bezos’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22522644/jeff-bezos-astronaut-blue-origin-spacex">spaceflight company Blue Origin</a> already has <a href="https://www.space.com/blue-origin-two-more-crewed-flights-2021">two more trips scheduled later this year</a>, while <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22570789/richard-branson-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-spacex-blue-origin-virgin-galactic">Virgin Galactic</a>, the space firm founded by billionaire Richard Branson, has at least <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-reserve-tickets-to-fly-space-richard-branson-virgin-galactic-2021-7">600 people</a> who have already paid around $250,000 each for future tickets on its spaceplane.
Now, as the commercial space tourism market (literally) gets off the ground, there are big questions facing future space travelers — and everyone else on the planet. Here are answers to the six biggest ones.
The biggest perk of traveling to space is the view. Just past the boundary between space and Earth, passengers can catch a stunning glimpse of our planet juxtaposed against the wide unknown of space. If a passenger is riding on a Virgin Galactic flight, they will get about 53 miles above sea level. Blue Origin riders will get a little bit higher, about 62 miles above sea level and past the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary between Earth and space. Overall, the experience on both flights is pretty similar.
The view is meant to be awe-inducing, and the experience even has its own name: the <a href="https://nasa.tumblr.com/post/188604970529/the-overview-effect?linkId=75957145">Overview Effect</a>. “When you see Earth from that high up, it changes your perspective on things and how interconnected we are and how we squander that here on Earth,” Wendy Whitman Cobb, a professor at the US Air Force’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, told Recode.
Another perk of these trips is that space tourists will feel a few minutes of microgravity, which is when gravity feels <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-microgravity-58.html">extremely weak</a>. That will give them the chance to bounce around a spacecraft weightlessly before heading back to Earth.
But Blue Origin’s and Virgin Galactic’s flights are relatively brief — about <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeff-bezos-in-space-what-the-10-minute-blue-origin-flight-will-be-like-11626372013">10</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57790040">90 minutes long</a>, respectively. Other space tourism flights from SpaceX, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/26/21267533/elon-musk-spacex-demo-2-falcon-9-iss-manned-launch">the space company founded by Elon Musk</a>, will have more to offer. This fall, billionaire Jared Isaacman, who founded the company Shift4 Payments, will pilot SpaceX’s first all-civilian flight, <a href="https://inspiration4.com/mission">the Inspiration4</a>, which will spend several days in orbit around Earth. In the coming years, the company has also planned <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/02/spacex-will-launch-four-private-astronaut-missions-to-the-space-station-through-2023/">private missions</a> to the International Space Station, as well as a trip <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56261574">around the moon</a>.
These trips are meant to be enjoyed by space nerds who longed to be astronauts. But there’s another reason rich people want to go to space: demonstrating exclusivity and conspicuous consumption. More than a few people can afford a trip to Venice or the Maldives. But how many people are privileged enough to take a trip to space?
“What a nice way of showing off these days than to post a picture on Instagram from space,” Sridhar Tayur, a Carnegie Mellon business professor, told Recode.
Right now, space tourism flights from Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have only <a href="https://www.livescience.com/what-is-suborbital-flight.html">reached suborbital space</a>, which means that flights enter space but do not enter orbit around Earth. Scientifically, that’s not a new frontier. Though these current flights use new technology, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/07/01/wally-funk-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space/">suborbital flight with humans aboard</a> was accomplished by NASA back in the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/60-years-ago-alan-shepard-becomes-the-first-american-in-space">early 1960s</a>, Matthew Hersch, a historian of technology at Harvard, told Recode.
Right now, it’s not clear these trips will offer scientists major new insights, but they might provide information that could be used in the future for space exploration. In fact, these trips are also being <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard/new-shepard-payloads/">marketed</a> as potential opportunities for scientific experiments. For instance, the most recent Virgin Galactic flight carried plants and tested how they responded to <a href="https://www.space.com/virgin-galactic-unity-22-launch-nasa-experiment">microgravity</a>.
These private companies primarily see opportunities in their commercial vehicles that can be reused at scale, which will allow the same rockets (or in Virgin Galactic’s case, spaceplanes) to go to space again and again, which lowers the overall cost of space tourism.
Billionaires and their private space companies also see the development of these rockets as an opportunity to prepare for flights that will do even more, and go even farther, into space. Bezos, for instance, has argued that New Shepard’s suborbital flights will help prepare the company’s future missions, including its New Glenn rocket, which is meant for orbital space.
“The fact of the matter is, the architecture and the technology we have chosen is complete overkill for a suborbital tourism mission,” Bezos said at Tuesday’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmpb7xJJ10I&t=1660s">post-launch briefing</a>. “We have chosen the vertical landing architecture. Why did we do that? Because it scales.”
Beyond potential scientific advancements in the future, suborbital spaceflight might also create new ways to travel from one place on earth to another. SpaceX, for instance, has advertised that long-haul flights could be shortened to <a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/57135-spacex-starship-rockets-will-get-you-from-paris-to-nyc-in-30-minutes">just 30 minutes</a> by traveling through space.
Right now, it’s not entirely clear just how risky space tourism is.
One way space tourism companies are trying to keep travelers safe is by requiring training so that the people who are taking a brief sojourn off Earth are as prepared as possible.
On the flight, people can experience intense altitude and G-forces. “This is sustained G-forces on your body, upwards of what can be 6 G in one direction — which is six times your body weight for upwards of 20 or 30 seconds,” Glenn King, the chief operating officer of the Nastar Center — the aerospace physiology training center that prepared Richard Branson for his flights — told Recode. “That’s a long time when you have six people, or your weight, pressing down on you.”
There’s also the chance that space tourists will be exposed to radiation, though that risk depends on how long you’re in space. “It’s a risk, especially more for the orbital flight than sub-orbital,” explains Whitman Cobb. “Going up in an airplane exposes you to a higher amount of radiation than you would get here on the ground.” She also warns that some tourists will likely barf on the ride.
There doesn’t seem to be an age limit on who can travel, though. The most recent Blue Origin flight included both the youngest person to ever travel to space, an 18-year-old Dutch teenager, as well as the oldest: 82-year-old pilot Wally Funk.
The leaders in commercial space tourism already claim they have a market to support the industry. While Bezos hinted on Tuesday the price would eventually come down — as eventually happened with the high prices of the nascent airline industry — for now, ticket prices are in the low hundreds of thousands, at least for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/science/cost-to-fly-blue-origin-bezos.html">Virgin Galactic</a>. That price point would keep spaceflight out of reach for most of humanity, but there are enough interested rich people that space tourism seems to be economically feasible.
“If you bring it down to $250,000, the wait times [to buy a ticket] will be very long,” Tayur, of Carnegie Mellon, told Recode.
The emissions of a flight to space can be worse than those of a typical airplane flight because just a few people hop aboard one of these flights, so the emissions per passenger are much higher. That pollution could become much worse if space tourism becomes more popular. Virgin Galactic alone eventually aims to launch <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/06/virgin-galactic-each-spaceport-is-1-billion-annual-revenue-opportunity.html">400 of these flights</a> annually.
“The carbon footprint of launching yourself into space in one of these rockets is incredibly high, close to about 100 times higher than if you took a long-haul flight,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/space-tourism-rockets-emit-100-times-more-co-per-passenger-than-flights-imagine-a-whole-industry-164601">Eloise Marais</a>, a physical geography professor at the University College London, told Recode. “It’s incredibly problematic if we want to be environmentally conscious and consider our carbon footprint.”
These flights’ effects on the environment will differ depending on factors like the fuel they use, the energy required to manufacture that fuel, and where they’re headed — and all these factors make it difficult to model their environmental impact. For instance, Jeff Bezos has argued that the liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel Blue Origin uses is less damaging to the environment than the other space competitors (technically, his flight didn’t <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jul/20/tweets/how-much-co2-did-bezos-rocket-ride-release-close-z/">release carbon dioxide</a>), but experts told Recode it could still have <a href="https://gizmodo.com/space-tourism-is-a-waste-1847285820">significant environmental effects</a>.
There are also other risks we need to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/31/17287062/rocket-emissions-black-carbon-alumina-particles-ozone-layer-stratosphere">keep studying</a>, including the release of <a href="https://www.livescience.com/new-shepard-emissions.html">soot</a> that could hurt the stratosphere and the ozone. A <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39806493">study</a> from 2010 found that the soot released by 1,000 space tourism flights could warm Antarctica by nearly 1 degree Celsius. “There are some risks that are unknown,” Paul Peeters, a <a href="https://www.buas.nl/en/research/professorships/sustainable-transport-and-tourism">tourism sustainability professor</a> at the Breda University of Applied Sciences, told Recode. “We should do much more work to assess those risks and make sure that they do not occur or to alleviate them somehow — before you start this space tourism business.” Overall, he thinks the environmental costs are reason enough not to take such a trip.
Right now, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has generally been <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/19/washington-space-tourism-500139">given the job</a> of overseeing the commercial space industry. But regulation of space is still relatively meager.
One of the biggest areas of concern is licensing launches and making sure that space flights don’t end up hitting all the other flying vehicles humans launch into the sky, like planes and drones. Just this June, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/space/elon-musk-twitter-helicopter-spacex-launch-b1875205.html">a SpaceX flight</a> was held up after a helicopter flew into the zone of the launch.
There’s a lot that still needs to be worked out, especially as there are more of these launches. On Thursday, the Senate hosted a hearing with leaders of the commercial space industry focused on overseeing the <a href="https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2021/7/space-situational-awareness-space-traffic-management-and-orbital-debris-examining-solutions-for-emerging-threats/819ef822-3e6d-4ab1-9a56-31c6d60969c9">growing amount of civil space traffic</a>.
At the same time, the FAA is also overseeing <a href="https://www.faa.gov/space/spaceports_by_state/">a surging number of spaceports</a> — essentially airports for spaceflight — and making sure there’s enough space for them to safely set up their launches.
But there are other areas where the government could step in. “I think the cybersecurity aspect will also play a very vital role, so that people don’t get hacked,” Tayur said. The FAA told Recode that the agency has participated in developing national principles for space cybersecurity, but Congress hasn’t given it a specific role in looking at the cybersecurity of space.
At some point, the government might also step in to regulate the environmental impact of these flights, too, but that’s not something the FAA currently has jurisdiction over.
In the meantime, no government agency is currently vetting these companies when it comes to the safety of the human passengers aboard. An FAA official confirmed with Recode that while the agency is awarding licenses to companies to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-approves-blue-origin-license-human-space-travel-ahead-bezos-flight-2021-07-12/#:~:text=U.S.%20approves%20Blue%20Origin%20license%20for%20human%20space%20travel%20ahead%20of%20Bezos%20flight,-Eric%20JohnsonDavid%20Shepardson&text=SEATTLE%2FWASHINGTON%2C%20July%2012%20(,Shepard%20launch%20system%20into%20space.">carry humans to space</a>, they’re not actually confirming that these trips are safe. That’s jurisdiction Congress won’t give <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fwhat-virgin-galactic-milestone-flight-means-for-the-future-of-tourists-in-space&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Frecode%2F22589197%2Fspace-travel-tourism-bezos-branson-rockets-blue-origin-virgin-galactic-spacex" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/what-virgin-galactic-milestone-flight-means-for-the-future-of-tourists-in-space\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/recode/22589197/space-travel-tourism-bezos-branson-rockets-blue-origin-virgin-galactic-spacex\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22353238__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/what-virgin-galactic-milestone-flight-means-for-the-future-of-tourists-in-space","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/recode/22589197/space-travel-tourism-bezos-branson-rockets-blue-origin-virgin-galactic-spacex","xcust":"___vx__p_22353238__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>the agency</a> until 2023.
There doesn’t seem to be an abundance of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/bezos-2021-space-odyssey-risk-too-far-insurers-2021-06-24/">travelers’ insurance policies</a> for space. “Passengers basically sign that they’re waiving all their rights,” Whitman Cobb said. “You’re acknowledging that risk and doing it yourself right now.”
So fair warning, if you decide to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a joyride to space: You’d likely have to accept all responsibility if you get hurt.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22589197/space-travel-tourism-bezos-branson-rockets-blue-origin-virgin-galactic-spacex">https://www.vox.com/recode/22589197/space-travel-tourism-bezos-branson-rockets-blue-origin-virgin-galactic-spacex</a>

vox How bad is space tourism for the environment? And other space travel questions, answered.

For many, the rise of commercial space tourism is a vulgar display of wealth and power . Amid several global crises, including climate cha...

Over 22,000 Afghan Families Flee From Kandahar, Once A Bastion Of Taliban

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Over 22,000 Afghan Families Flee From Kandahar, Once A Bastion Of Taliban" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-07/83c2d24_afghanistan_625x300_25_July_21.jpg" title="Over 22,000 Afghan Families Flee From Kandahar, Once A Bastion Of Taliban" /></div>
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Kandahar:
More than 22,000 Afghan families have fled from their homes to escape fighting in the former Taliban bastion of Kandahar, officials said Sunday, as authorities arrested four suspected insurgents over this week's rocket attack on Kabul.
Since early May, violence has surged across several provinces including in Kandahar after the insurgents launched a sweeping offensive just days after the <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/first-task-for-afghan-forces-is-to-slow-talibans-momentum-pentagon-chief-2493930" target="_self">US-led foreign forces began</a> their final withdrawal.
The Taliban's deadly assault has seen the insurgents capture scores of districts, border crossings and encircle several provincial capitals.
"The fighting has displaced 22,000 families in the past one month in Kandahar," Dost Mohammad Daryab, head of the provincial refugee department, told AFP.
"They have all moved from the volatile districts of the city to safer areas."
On Sunday, fighting continued on the outskirts of Kandahar city.
"The negligence of some security forces, especially the police, has made way for the Taliban to come that close," Lalai Dastageeri, deputy governor of Kandahar province, told AFP.
"We are now trying to organise our security forces."
Local authorities had set up four camps for the displaced people who are estimated to be about 154,000.
Kandahar resident Hafiz Mohammad Akbar said his house had been taken over by the Taliban after he fled.
"They forced us to leave... I am now living with my 20-member family in a compound with no toilet," said Akbar.
Fears of fighting to increase
Residents expressed concerns the fighting might increase in days ahead.
"If they really want to fight, they should go to a desert and fight, not destroy the city," said Khan Mohammad, who moved to a camp with his family.
"Even if they win, they can't rule a ghost town."
Kandahar, with its 650,000 inhabitants, is the second-largest city in Afghanistan after Kabul.
The southern province was the epicentre of the Taliban's regime when they ruled Afghanistan between 1996 to 2001.
Ousted from power in a US-led invasion in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, the Taliban have spearheaded a deadly insurgency that continues to this day.
Their latest offensive launched in early May has seen the group take control of half of the country's about 400 districts.
Earlier this week, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff General Mark Milley said the Taliban appear to have "strategic momentum" on the battlefield.
But global rights group Human Rights Watch said there were reports the Taliban were committing atrocities against civilians in areas they had captured, including in the town of Spin Boldak near the border with Pakistan they captured earlier this month.
"Taliban leaders have denied responsibility for any abuses, but growing evidence of expulsions, arbitrary detentions, and killings in areas under their control are raising fears among the population," said Patricia Grossman, associate Asia director at HRW said in a statement.
The authorities meanwhile announced they had arrested four men they said belonged to the Taliban, accusing them of carrying out this week's rocket attack on Kabul.
"A Taliban commander, Momin, along with his three other men, have been arrested. They all belong to the Taliban group," ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai told reporters in a video message.
At least three rockets landed near the palace on Tuesday as President Ashraf Ghani and his top officials performed outdoor prayers to mark the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
The attack was however claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/over-22-000-afghanistan-families-flee-from-kandahar-once-a-bastion-of-taliban-2494514">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/over-22-000-afghanistan-families-flee-from-kandahar-once-a-bastion-of-taliban-2494514</a>

news world Over 22,000 Afghan Families Flee From Kandahar, Once A Bastion Of Taliban

Kandahar: More than 22,000 Afghan families have fled from their homes to escape fighting in the former Taliban bastion of Kandahar, offi...

"Stupid, Regret It": German Leader On Laughing At Visit To Flood-Hit Town

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="'Stupid, Regret It': German Leader On Laughing At Visit To Flood-Hit Town" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-07/emfs6lt4_german-leader_625x300_25_July_21.jpg" title="'Stupid, Regret It': German Leader On Laughing At Visit To Flood-Hit Town" /></div>
CDU leader Armin Laschet seen laughing as German president delivers a speech.
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Berlin:
Germany's conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor apologised on Sunday for laughing on a visit to a flood-stricken town last week, a gaffe that has hit his ratings two months before a federal election.
Armin Laschet's conservative bloc is around 10 points ahead of the Greens in most polls, but his lapse last weekend at Erftstadt, when he was caught on camera laughing at a joke while the country's president was giving a sombre speech, has cost him.
"It was stupid and shouldn't have happened and I regret it," he told ZDF television. "I am sorry, I can't say much more."
The incident spawned a twitter storm under the hashtag "laschetlacht" (Laschet laughs). An INSA poll on Sunday showed that 57% of Germans viewed Laschet's actions in the catastrophic floods, which killed at least 180 people, as negative.
In a direct vote for chancellor, Laschet would only get 15%, down five points from last week, compared with 21% for his Social Democrat rival, Olaf Scholz, the poll showed.
In a wide-ranging interview with ZDF television, Laschet said he was determined to shift the campaign for the Sept. 26 election on to issues such as the economy and climate change.
"It is understandable that polls will fluctuate in a difficult week but in the next few weeks I want to shape the discussion on issues," he told ZDF.
Playing down differences with his Bavarian conservative rival, Markus Soeder, who has pushed for more ambitious climate targets, Laschet said he believed Germany would have phased out its coal before the target date of 2038.
"We should stick to the plan. But I think we will exit it more quickly than we all think due to CO2 prices," he said.
He also said he was not at odds on tax with Soeder, whose CSU forms a parliamentary bloc with Laschet's bigger CDU. Popular Soeder lost a bid to become the conservative chancellor candidate thanks to vested CDU interests in Laschet.
"In tax we are very close," said Laschet, when asked about Soeder's calls for tax reductions.
Making clear that his priority was not cutting taxes, Laschet said the conservatives wanted stable state finances and that to promise blanket cuts was "not serious".
Saying major investment was needed for Europe's biggest economy to recover from the COVID-19 crisis, he pointed out that Germany was bound by strict rules limiting new debt which are enshrined in the constitution.
"If there is the financial scope, we will support reducing the burden on low- and medium-earners and that should happen for families by 2023," said Laschet.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/germany-floods-stupid-regret-it-german-leader-on-laughing-at-visit-to-flood-hit-town-2494513">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/germany-floods-stupid-regret-it-german-leader-on-laughing-at-visit-to-flood-hit-town-2494513</a>

news world "Stupid, Regret It": German Leader On Laughing At Visit To Flood-Hit Town

CDU leader Armin Laschet seen laughing as German president delivers a speech. Berlin: Germany's conservative candidate to succeed A...

"Poor Choice Of Word, Apologies": UK Health Secretary After Covid Tweet

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="'Poor Choice Of Word, Apologies': UK Health Secretary After Covid Tweet" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-07/0enksgag_sajid-javid-reuters_625x300_25_July_19.jpg" title="'Poor Choice Of Word, Apologies': UK Health Secretary After Covid Tweet" /></div>
Sajid Javid has aplogised for his remarks on Covid.
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Britain's Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Sunday apologised after he tweeted that the country need not "cower" in the face of coronavirus, having himself recovered from a bout of the disease.
"I was expressing gratitude that the vaccines help us fight back as a society, but it was a poor choice of word and I sincerely apologise," he said.
His inital tweet urged "please, if you haven't yet, get your jab, as we learn to live with, rather than cower from, this virus," sparking criticism that he was being disrespectful to those who died from the disease in Britian.
"129,000 people who died didn't cower, they fought for their lives," wrote Labour MP Yvette Cooper.
Britain is in the midst of another wave of the virus, due to the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Deaths and hospitalisations are rising, albeit at much lower rates that previous waves, mainly due to a succesful vaccination drive.
For the first time in the latest wave, the weekly number of cases has also fallen, although the daily updates on which that figure is based are considered less reliable than the Office for National Statistics Survey data, which has yet to be released for the last week.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/uk-health-secretary-sajid-javid-after-covid-tweet-poor-choice-of-word-apologies-2494510">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/uk-health-secretary-sajid-javid-after-covid-tweet-poor-choice-of-word-apologies-2494510</a>

news world "Poor Choice Of Word, Apologies": UK Health Secretary After Covid Tweet

Sajid Javid has aplogised for his remarks on Covid. Britain's Health Secretary Sajid Javid on Sunday apologised after he tweeted tha...

UK Health Minister's "Don't Cower From" Covid Remark Sparks Outrage

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="UK Health Minister's 'Don't Cower From' Covid Remark Sparks Outrage" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-07/63ol3vh8_uk-health-minister-reuters_625x300_25_July_21.jpg" title="UK Health Minister's 'Don't Cower From' Covid Remark Sparks Outrage" /></div>
Coronavirus: British health minister Sajid Javid tested postive for COVID-19 recently.
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London:
British health minister Sajid Javid was accused of insulting coronavirus victims on Sunday after urging people to take a COVID-19 vaccine and "learn to live with, rather than cower from, this virus".
Javid, who replaced Matt Hancock as health minister last month after his predecessor stepped down for breaking COVID rules by kissing an aide in his office, began his job by urging people to learn to live with the virus.
Britain, which has one of the highest official COVID death numbers, has shifted its strategy to fight coronavirus from using restrictions to limit its spread to opening up society in the hope vaccines will protect most people from serious illness.
Cases are high, but so is uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, and officials argue the shift is needed to help businesses in sectors such as hospitality and the night-time economy.
Writing on Twitter, Javid said on Saturday he had recovered after testing positive for COVID. "Symptoms were very mild, thanks to amazing vaccines," he said.
"Please - if you haven't yet - get your jab, as we learn to live with, rather than cower from, this virus."
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour Party, was one of several lawmakers from opposition parties and people who have lost family members to the pandemic to criticise his use of the phrase "cower from".
"127,000 people have died from this virus, tens of thousands of whom would still be here if it wasn't for the catastrophic failures of your government," she said on Twitter.
"So how dare you denigrate people for trying to keep themselves and their families safe."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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"Purified": Japan's Hikers Return To "Revered" Mount Fuji

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="'Purified': Japan's Hikers Return To 'Revered' Mount Fuji" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-07/qu41mg98_japan-mount-fiji_625x300_25_July_21.jpg" title="'Purified': Japan's Hikers Return To 'Revered' Mount Fuji" /></div>
Mount Fiji, Japan: Hikers watch sunrise from the summit of Japan's Mount Fuji.
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Japan:
For a year, the peak of Japan's iconic Mount Fuji has been off-limits because of coronavirus, but now hikers are flocking back to catch the spectacular sunrise above the clouds.
The active volcano's symmetrical slopes were closed to the public last summer due to the pandemic, and only reopened this month.
In the early hours of a recent morning, more than 100 people were gathered at the summit of the sacred mountain, which is capped with treacherous ice and snow for most of the year.
"Fuji has always been revered. It is a mountain that is an object of worship," said Takeo Tokunari, a 34-year-old hiker.
"Even though I am not particularly religious, I do feel purified by coming here, somehow."
Fuji-san, as it is known in Japanese, is the quintessential symbol of the country currently hosting the virus-postponed Tokyo Olympics.
Cycling events are taking place on and around its slopes, with the steep climbs of the long-distance road race challenging even the fittest athletes in Japan's sweltering summer heat.
The 3,776-metre (12,388 foot) mountain is about two hours from central Tokyo by train.
But it can be seen for miles around, and has been immortalised in countless Japanese artworks, including Hokusai's world-famous "Great Wave".
Just after 4:30 am, after a long night of climbing and a short rest on the mountainside, hikers were treated to the majestic sight of the sunrise.
Climbers at the summit can watch it breaking through the clouds behind a traditional "torii" gate on the mountainside.
"I have already climbed other mountains, but Mount Fuji is special," said Haruka Fujimori, a 23-year-old flight attendant.
"It is a volcano not connected to any other mountain range, it stands alone majestically on the landscape, I find it beautiful."
Mizuki Ogawa, also 23, told AFP at the summit that climbing Fuji had been a personal challenge.
"In my daily life and at work, I sometimes experienced difficult situations that made me lose confidence in myself," she said.
"So I challenged myself to climb Mount Fuji to try to regain my confidence."
But while the mountain is awe-inspiring, it's also dangerous.
The climbing routes from the fifth station on its slopes to the top are only open from early July to September.
The rest of the year the mountain is deemed too treacherous to climb and lodges and toilets on climbing routes are closed to discourage would-be hikers.
But that doesn't always stop people, and in October 2019 a man died after falling down part of the mountain while livestreaming.
Fuji last erupted in 1707, and while it has not shown any signs of life in recent decades, experts say an eruption could shower Tokyo in ash and force hundreds of thousands to evacuate.
But right now, it's the preserve of early-morning adventurers like Chikako Kubo, 29.
"There is something fresh and divine: a sunrise is a start, an opportunity to take stock and start something new," she said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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news world "Purified": Japan's Hikers Return To "Revered" Mount Fuji

Mount Fiji, Japan: Hikers watch sunrise from the summit of Japan's Mount Fuji. Japan: For a year, the peak of Japan's iconic Mo...