Virgin Galactic — the space tourism company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson — finally launched its first space tourists to the edge of the cosmos, a major step toward delivering on decades of promises.

The company’s rocket-powered space plane, VSS Unity, took off at 8:30 a.m. MT from a New Mexico spaceport attached to a massive twin-fuselage mothership.

It carried three customers: entrepreneur and health and wellness coach Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastatia Mayers — the first space travelers from Antigua who won their seats in a fundraiser drawing — as well as former Olympian Jon Goodwin, who competed as a canoeist in the 1972 Munich Summer Games. Goodwin became the second person with Parkinson’s disease to travel to space.

The group’s journey began at Virgin Galactic’s spaceport in New Mexico, where the passengers boarded VSS Unity as it sat attached beneath the wing of the mothership called VMS Eve.

VMS Eve took off much like an airplane, barreling down a runway before ascending to more than 40,000 feet (12,192 meters). After reaching its designated altitude, VMS Eve released the VSS Unity, which then fired its rocket engine for about one minute as it swooped directly upward, sending it vaulting toward the stars.

The vehicle ventured more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, the altitude the US government considers the edge of outer space. (Internationally, the Kármán line, 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level, is often used to mark the boundary between our planet and space — but there’s a lot of gray area.)

The space plane reached supersonic speeds as it hurled upward. And at the peak of its flight, the vehicle spent a few minutes in weightlessness as it entered free fall and glided back to the spaceport for a runway landing at 9:30 a.m. MT. The journey lasted an hour.

After returning to Earth, Goodwin described the flight as “a completely surreal experience” and “without a doubt the most exciting day of my life.”

“I was shocked at the things that you feel,” Mayer said. “You are so much more connected to everything than you would expect to be. You felt like a part of the team, part of the ship, part of the universe, part of Earth. That was incredible and I’m still starstruck.”

“This experience also has given me this beautiful feeling that if I can do this, I can do anything,” Schahaff said.

Meet the crew

This mission came on the heels of the success of Virgin Galactic’s first commercial mission, which launched in June. That inaugural flight was a research-focused mission with Italian air force-funded passengers — rather than celebrities and wealthy thrill seekers similar to those flown by Virgin Galactic’s chief competitor, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. (Future Virgin Galactic flights, however, are expected to include high-profile customers.)

Thursday’s mission marked Virgin Galactic’s first to include tourists, or passengers flying for the experience rather than in a professional capacity.

Schahaff and her daughter Mayers won their seats in a drawing that raised $1.7 million in grants for Space for Humanity, a nonprofit focused on expanding access to space.

They were among the first from the Caribbean islands to travel to space; a Jamaican American and Virgin Galactic employee flew on a test mission in May.

“When I was two years old, just looking up to the skies, I thought, ‘How can I get there?’ But, being from the Caribbean, I didn’t see how something like this would be possible,” Schahaff said in a news release last month. “The fact that I am here, the first to travel to space from Antigua, shows that space really is becoming more accessible.”

Mayers, 18, is a second-year undergraduate studying philosophy and physics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She became the second-youngest person to travel to space, according to Virgin Galactic. (The current record belongs to Oliver Daemen, who was 18 when he accompanied Bezos on Blue Origin’s inaugural passenger flight in 2021.)

Goodwin was one of the earliest ticket holders on Virgin Galactic, which opened its first sales more than a decade ago.

Goodwin said he was determined not to let his 2014 Parkinson’s diagnosis stand in the way of joining a flight.

“And now for me to go to space with Parkinson’s is completely magical,” he said in a news release. “I hope this inspires all others facing adversity and shows them that challenges don’t have to inhibit or stop them from pursuing their dreams.”

Advocates have long made the case that space travel is uniquely suited for people with physical disabilities, as the weightless environment could prove easier to navigate and enhance mobility.

The European Space Agency recently enlisted John McFall, a Paralympic sprinter who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident when he was 19, to test that hypothesis further. McFall will participate in feasibility studies to pinpoint how to adapt space stations and other spacecraft to suit the needs of people with disabilities.

What’s next for space tourism

Carrying its first tourists is a massive milestone for Virgin Galactic, which was founded in 2004 and has long missed deadlines for delivering on promises to conduct frequent trips to the edge of space.

Now that it’s operational, the company can turn toward its lengthy backlog of customers who have signed up for a flight. Virgin Galactic has sold about 800 tickets, including 600 at prices up to $250,000 and another couple hundred at $450,000 per ticket.

During an August 4 call with investors, CEO Michael Colglazier called the company’s recent successes an “outstanding achievement.”

“Galactic 02 is going to set the stage for a new era of suborbital human spaceflight that will dramatically broaden access to space for private individuals,” he said, using the name for Thursday’s mission.

In the lead-up to 2023, Virgin Galactic had been undergoing a lengthy “enhancement” process to upgrade its flight hardware. The work came after several missteps in earlier test flights.

The company plans to continue using its VSS Unity space plane and VMS Eve mothership until at least 2026, then debut an updated line of hardware referred to as “Delta ships.”

Those crafts are expected to cost less to produce and be capable of conducting more flights in less time, Colglazier added.

A 2022 incident where a United Airlines flight came within 748 feet of crashing into the Pacific Ocean was caused by pilot error, federal investigators say.

In a just-published final report, the National Transportation Safety Board pins the cause of United Airlines flight 1722’s dive on “the flight crew’s failure to manage the airplane’s vertical flightpath” after an apparent “miscommunication” between the two pilots over the position of the plane’s wing flaps.

The incident took place about one minute after the Boeing 777 departed Hawaii’s Kahului Airport in heavy rain and turbulence on December 18, the NTSB said. The flight with 271 passengers on board continued on to its destination San Francisco without further issue, investigators said.

The NTSB said statements from the flight crew revealed confusion over the setting of the 777’s flaps, which are typically extended for takeoff and retracted incrementally during climb out.

“When the airplane reached the acceleration altitude, the captain reduced the pitch attitude slightly and called for the flap setting to be reduced to flaps 5,” the NTSB said in its report. “According to the first officer, he thought that he heard the captain announce flaps 15.”

The report says the captain, who was flying the airplane at an altitude of 2,100 feet (640 meters), became concerned about damaging the still-extended flaps and started descending and decelerating until cockpit alarms sounded.

‘Pull up pull up’

“Both pilots recalled hearing the initial warnings from the ground proximity warning system (GPWS), and the first officer recalled announcing ‘pull up pull up’ along with those initial GPWS warnings,” the NTSB report said.

The report says that United Airlines has changed its training procedures and “issued an awareness campaign about flight path management at their training center.”

After the incident first came to light earlier this year, United said it had conducted an investigation with the FAA and the pilots union “that ultimately resulted in the pilots receiving additional training.”

United is “drawing on the lessons learned from this flight to inform the training of all United pilots,” the airline said in a statement on Thursday.

“Our pilots voluntarily reported this event and United fully cooperated with the independent investigation so that insights could be used to enhance the safety of the entire industry.”

United said both pilots received additional training and continue to fly for the airline.

‘Screams on the plane’

“It felt like you were climbing to the top of a roller coaster. It was at that point,” Williams said. “There were a number of screams on the plane. Everybody knew that something was out of the ordinary, or at least that this was not normal.”

Williams and his family were sitting near the back of the plane when the Boeing 777 made the terrifying plunge shortly after taking off from Kahului Airport in Hawaii.

He said the plane then went into a “dramatic, nose-down” dive for about eight to 10 seconds before it climbed steeply again and resumed normal flight.

The experience was harrowing.

“When the plane started to nosedive, multiple screams are being let out, at that point,” Williams said.

Beijing on Monday praised ongoing talks aimed at finding a formula for peace in Ukraine, after a Chinese envoy attended a weekend summit in Saudi Arabia that was slammed by Russia as “doomed to fail.”

China said the two-day meeting, which took place in the Gulf kingdom’s port sea city of Jeddah, helped “to consolidate international consensus” on finding a peaceful solution to the conflict, Reuters reported, citing a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

The talks brought together more than 40 nations, including Ukraine, the United States, European states, and the BRICS group of countries – perhaps none as closely watched as China, Russia’s most powerful ally. Kremlin officials said Russia had not been invited to the talks but was monitoring them, state media reported.

While the summit yielded little more than a pledge to hold more discussions in the future, Ukraine hailed China’s attendance as a diplomatic victory. Beijing had steered clear of a previous round of talks in Denmark in June, but has deepened ties with Saudi Arabia in recent years.

China was given a prominent seat at the table in Jeddah. In photos published by Saudi Arabia’s state news agency, Saudi national security adviser Musaed bin Mohammed Al-Aiba was sat between his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, and Chinese Special Representative on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui.

Li “had extensive contact and communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis … listened to all sides’ opinions and proposals, and further consolidated international consensus,” China’s foreign ministry told Reuters in a written statement.

China claims to be a neutral party to the conflict but leader Xi Jinping has deepened his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and echoed the Kremlin’s rhetoric on the war.

Beijing, which views Moscow as a key partner and counterbalance amid its own rising tensions with the West, has refused to condemn Putin’s invasion or call for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine’s territory, and rejected joining Western sanctions on the Kremlin.

There is no indication that China’s attendance at the summit will lead to any change in its staunch support for Russia, but Beijing is increasingly eager to be seen as an international peacekeeper. Kyiv praised the development as a “super breakthrough.”

“Saudi Arabia has attracted China, and this is a historic victory,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday, before the summit got underway.

Beijing and Riyadh have been keen to flout their growing ties. China scored a diplomatic win in the Middle East earlier this year when it helped broker a landmark normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has coordinated oil output with Russia – both nations are members of the OPEC+ group of crude exporters – despite objections from the West and accusations that Riyadh was “siding with Moscow” in some of its oil cuts.

In a statement from the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Saudi Arabia stressed the importance of “benefiting from views and positive suggestions” made during the meeting.

Russia mostly scoffed at the talks, describing them as “Western efforts to mobilize the global south to support Zelensky’s formula” and saying such efforts were “doomed to fail.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov however noted that the participation of BRICS countries such as China and India was potentially useful, as they may “convey common sense to the Western patrons of Kyiv.” Russia would be discussing the outcome of the talks with its BRICS partners, Ryabkov added.

In the meantime, the prospect of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine seem as far-fetched as ever, as the grueling war approaches the 18-month mark.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister noted on Monday that Russian forces had fired nearly half-a-million munitions in the last week alone in the east, but the front line has barely budged.

Ukrainian sea drones attacked a major naval base in Russia on Friday, leaving a damaged Russian warship listing in the Black Sea in a brazen strike carried out hundreds of miles from Ukrainian-held territory.

Dramatic social media videos showed the vessel, an amphibious Russian landing ship, tilting badly and sitting very low in the water as it was being towed near the base at Novorossiysk, Russia’s largest port.

The incident comes against the backdrop of rising tensions in the Black Sea and stepped up Ukrainian strikes against targets across Russia after President Volodymr Zelensky pledged to “return” the war to Russian territory.

The Ukrainian source said the operation was carried out jointly by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Navy.

A Russian-appointed official said later on Friday that three Ukrainian sea drones had also been destroyed near the Kerch Strait and the area leading to the Crimean bridge.

The drones damaged a civilian Russian tanker, injuring some crew members, according to Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Zaporizhzhia military-civilian administration. However, Russia’s Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport said in a statement on Telegram that there were no casualties among the 11 crew.

SIG is one of the biggest Russian oil tankers. It was built in 2014 and has 5,000-ton capacity.

An ambitious push

The strike at Novorossiysk was the latest demonstration of Kyiv’s ambitious push to develop long-range unmanned attack vehicles at sea and in the air. The drone that hit the ship would have had to travel several hundred miles to reach the port, whether launched from Ukrainian-controlled territory or from somewhere in the Black Sea.

Novorossiysk, near the Russian city of Krasnodar, is Russia’s largest port by volume of cargo handled and is a base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It is ice-free year-round and has nearly 100 berths, and handles oil and gas exports as well as agricultural exports.

The Olenengorsky Gornyak was one of three Ropucha-class ships that entered the Black Sea weeks before the Russian invasion in February 2022, when a sea-borne assault on the coast around Odesa seemed a likely part of Moscow’s strategy.

The Russians’ failure to advance further west on land in the early days of the invasion, combined with the improvement in Ukrainian defenses since then, has made such an operation highly unlikely and the ship, which is nearly 50 years old, would not have had a key role in the Russian navy’s current Black Sea plans.

But the Ukrainians’ ability to reach Novorossiysk serves notice that Russian surface ships and port infrastructure in the Black Sea are vulnerable to these fast and relatively stealthy weapons, especially with combat payloads of the size that struck the ship.

A Russian military blogger who goes by the name Rybar later reported that one of the Olenengorsky Gornyak’s compartments had been flooded but that it was not in danger of sinking.

Russian officials claimed to have intercepted two Ukrainian sea drones at the port, despite the video evidence to the contrary. The Russian Seafarers Union later claimed the port was “working in normal mode” and that “everything is calm,” state media agency RIA Novosti reported.

“Changing the rules of the game”

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak praised the strike in a tweet, saying: “What is happening in the Black Sea? #Drones are changing the rules of the game, returning the waters to full-fledged foreign jurisdiction, and ultimately destroying the value of the Russian fleet. In fact, they are returning everyone to the international law of the sea.”

Other Ukrainian officials were more cryptic in their responses to the attack. Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, said just as “in Moscow there are unidentified flying objects” – in reference to recent drone strikes on the Russian capital – so too there are now “unidentified floating objects” in the Black Sea.

Yusov said the attack was “a serious slap in the face” for the Kremlin and “in terms of security, of course, this is a big loss for the occupiers’ fleet. Planning further landing operations, including the use of these vessels, becomes more problematic.”

Russian military bloggers reacted to the attack with a mixture of anger, concern and surprise at the ability of Ukraine’s sea drones to strike targets long assumed to be at a “safe” distance.

Sergey Mardan, a Russian journalist and television personality, said the “attack by Ukrainian marine drones on Novorossiysk is simply a quantum leap in the geography of the conflict. It is much larger than even the drones attacking the offices of Russian government ministries.”

Another commentator who writes under the pseudonym Kapral Gashetkin said: “Throughout the entire war, the Novorossiysk Naval Base was the rear of the Black Sea Fleet. It was thought to be relatively safe. However, it is time to realize that the enemy has a ‘long arm’ and can reach very far with it.”

In a separate incident, Russia’s defense ministry claimed its air defenses downed 10 Ukrainian drones over Crimea on Friday morning and suppressed three others.

Some of the strikes on Crimea targeted an oil storage facility at the port of Feodosia, on the peninsula’s southern coast. According to Rybar, Russian troops shot down seven drones and downed another with “electronic warfare equipment.”

Rybar said one of the drones “landed near an oil depot in the city,” but “there is no data on damage yet.”

Ukrainian officials said that attacks on the oil storage facility in Feodosia are “inevitable.”

Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military in the south, said that “Everyone knows that there is a very massive oil storage facility [in Feodosia], where very large reserves can be stored for the Black Sea Fleet.”

“It is clear that the [Russians] will defend this area. And it is clear that the enemy’s logistics are concentrated to some extent in these places… Therefore, “cotton” [explosions] will bloom. And it is inevitable,” Humeniuk said.

Black Sea strikes

Ukraine has previously targeted Russian naval assets in the Black Sea. In April 2022, shortly after the invasion began, one of Russia’s most important warships – the flagship guided-missile cruiser Moskva – sunk, with Ukraine claiming to have downed it with anti-ship cruise missiles.

Friday’s attack comes as tensions ratchet up in the Black Sea, after Russia withdrew from a grain deal crucial to global food supplies and resumed its blockade of Ukraine’s ports, as well as launching a prolonged bombardment of its infrastructure and grain storage facilities.

As Ukraine’s sea drone program has developed, it has increasingly allowed the military to attack and surveil Russia’s fleet in the Black Sea and on the occupied Crimean peninsula.

“It is very difficult for them to get into such a small drone, it is very difficult to find it,” the developer said. “The speed of these drones exceeds any sea craft in the Black Sea region at the moment.”

After the strike on Friday, Russian military blogger Rybar noted: “It is interesting that the drone approached the large landing ship freely. The crew probably did not expect an attack and therefore did not take measures to destroy the drone.”

In recent weeks, Ukraine has increased its strikes on Russian territory, including in the capital Moscow, in an apparent shift in tactics and in rhetoric.

“Ukraine is getting stronger, and the war is gradually returning to Russia’s territory, to its symbolic centers and military bases,” Zelensky said in his daily address last Sunday. “This is inevitable, natural and absolutely fair.”

One of Russia’s biggest oil tankers was struck by a maritime drone, the latest salvo in a Ukrainian military campaign employing unmanned vehicles to attack far-away Russian targets by air and by sea.

The Russian-flagged ship, the Sig, was hit by a drone carrying 450 kilograms (992 pounds) of TNT shortly before midnight, according to a Ukraine Security Service source. The strike created a hole in the vessel’s engine room at the waterline on the starboard side, forcing the 11-strong crew to fight the water intake, Russian authorities said. The flooding eventually stopped.

Russia’s Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport said no casualties were reported and that the Sig was not carrying oil when the drone crashed into ship. Ukrainian officials, however, said some crew were injured and that the tanker was carrying fuel for the Russian military.

The strike on the Sig came just hours after Ukrainian sea drones targeted a major naval base in Novorossiysk, a coastal city on the Black Sea that is home to Russia’s largest port by volume of cargo handled. An amphibious Russian landing ship was hit, leaving it tilting badly and sitting very low in the water.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks using unmanned aerial vehicles in recent weeks, hitting targets well within Russian territory, including in Moscow.

The new generation of powerful sea drones, however, could open up a new front for Kyiv in the 18-month conflict.

The weapons are fast, semi-submersible drones, and are proving very difficult to defend against. They can be easily launched at sea and at least some variants are capable of traveling several hundred miles to their targets.

Their payloads so far have proven capable of crippling large vessels.

The two sea-based attacks Friday took place near the Kerch Strait, which connects the Crimean Peninsula to mainland Russia.

After illegally annexing the peninsula in 2014, the Kremlin spent around $3.7 billion to both physically and symbolically connect Crimea to Russia by bridge. Russian President Vladimir Putin personally led a convoy over the 12-mile overpass – Europe’s longest – to celebrate its opening in 2018.

The Kerch Bridge has been targeted several times since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. An explosion in October killed three people and collapsed part of the roadway and Ukrainian forces attacked the bridge last month.

Friday’s assault, however, appeared to be one of the biggest to date. In addition to the attacks on the Sig and the naval base, Friday morning saw Ukrainian aerial drones target an oil storage facility in Feodosia, a town on the Crimean Peninsula’s south coast. Ten unmanned aerial vehicles in total were downed over Crimea, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry

Ukrainian authorities have vowed to continue targeting the bridge and ships navigating Ukrainian territorial waters, even if they are controlled by Russia. The head of the Ukrainian Security Service, Vasyl Maliuk, called such attacks “absolutely logical and effective.”

Maliuk said that if the Russians wanted such incidents to stop, “they have the only option to do so – to leave the territorial waters of Ukraine and our land.”

Ukraine’s State Hydrological Service also warned ships against using several Russian ports due to the war.

Ukrainian agencies, especially the Security Service, have been notably vocal about the use of these drones in the Black Sea after months of reticence.

Their use is both a moral boost and battlefield advantage, allowing Kyiv to exploit a new, domestically engineered technology at sea while its forces are are struggling to take ground in the counteroffensive on land.

At least six people have died in the wildfires that are ravaging parts of Maui, torching entire communities to the ground and leaving behind apocalyptic scenes of ash and debris.

Richard Bissen Jr., the island’s mayor, announced the death toll in a Wednesday news conference, but did not offer further details about the deaths and said authorities are still conducting search and rescue operations. So far, more than a dozen people had to be rescued from the ocean, among them two young children, Maui County officials said.

Several people are also unaccounted for, Bissen added. And many community members have been gripped with anxiety for their loved ones’ safety after flames began swallowing neighborhoods.

In the early Wednesday morning hours, Kaleiopu and his grandfather awoke to howling winds and quickly saw the blaze approaching their home. They fled shortly after 4 a.m.

When Kaleiopu’s father went to the home an hour later to check that they had safely evacuated, there was nothing left.

“Our entire street was burned to the ground,” Kaleiopu said.

The fires on Maui started spreading widely Tuesday – fueled in part by violent winds from Hurricane Dora, churning more than 800 miles away – decimating homes and businesses, launching urgent rescue missions, knocking out power and communication services, and even forcing some people into the ocean to avoid being burned.

On Wednesday afternoon, officials on the island urged visitors to leave Lahaina and Maui “as soon as possible,” reporting a mass bus evacuation was ongoing and there were available flight seats.

“As a result of three fires that have occurred that are continuing here on our island we have had 13 evacuations from different neighborhoods and towns, we’ve had 16 road closures, we’ve opened five shelters,” Bissen said, noting more than 2,000 people were staying at shelters.

“Local people have lost everything,” said James Kunane Tokioka, the state’s business, economic development and tourism director, at the news conference. “They’ve lost their house, they’ve lost their animals and it’s devastating.”

Scores of structures on Maui have been burned to the ground, the mayor said. Most of them were in the historic town of Lahaina, a touristic and economic hub on the west side of the island.

It’s where Claire Kent’s home was too.

Kent was at a friend’s home and never got to pick up anything from her house before they evacuated.

“We didn’t even realize we weren’t going to get to go back,” she said. But within an hour, the inferno had consumed the neighborhood, and had swallowed cars on the road Kent and her friends were using to evacuate.

It was, she said, “like something out of a horror movie.”

Bissen said helicopters were using water drops over Maui Wednesday to help suppress the flames. The fires are still not contained.

Meanwhile, crews on Hawaii’s Big Island were also working Wednesday to contain multiple brushfires there, including a blaze that was threatening structures in one community and was 60% contained, according to fire officials.

Hawaii’s governor, who was on a personal trip this week, said he was rushing back to the state Wednesday.

911 and cell service disrupted

“911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down,” Luke said. “That’s been part of the problem, that Maui County has not been able to communicate with residents on the west side, Lahaina side.”

Satellite phones have been the only reliable way to get in touch with some areas, including hotels, the lieutenant governor said.

The island is home to about 117,000 people.

“Our hospital system on Maui, they are overburdened with burn patients, people suffering from inhalation,” she said. “The reality is that we need to fly people out of Maui to give them burn support because Maui hospital cannot do extensive burn treatment.”

Thousands of animals were also displaced by the fires, the Maui Humane Society said in a Facebook post, pleading with residents who can to foster pets to make space for more animals, including some who may be injured.

The disaster also has wiped out power to more than 12,000 homes and businesses in Maui, according to PowerOutage.us.

Video footage shot by Air Maui Helicopter Tours over parts of the Lahaina area shows entire blocks were decimated by the flames, with little but ruins and ashes left, and everything still engulfed in a thick, hazy smoke.

“In my 52 years of flying on Maui, I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Olsten added.

Tourists are being discouraged from going to Maui, Luke told reporters Wednesday.

“Today we signed another emergency proclamation which will discourage tourists from going to Maui,” she said. “Even as of this morning, planes were landing on Maui with tourists. This is not a safe place to be.”

What the weather looks like next

Dora, a powerful Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 mph, was about 860 miles southwest of Honolulu Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect.

The state likely experienced its most intense winds Tuesday, seeing wind gusts reaching up to 80 mph, said meteorologist Ian Morrison with the National Weather Service office in Honolulu. But those effects are quickly dwindling.

Wind speeds lowered Wednesday and are expected to further decrease Thursday and Friday, according to Morrison.

“Dropping winds doesn’t mean the fires will go away,” Morrison warned, but added the drop will likely help firefighters working to contain the blazes. Little rain is expected on the Big Island and Maui this week, and it will be limited to the eastern side of the island, Ward said.

San’in isn’t the Japan most travelers picture on their first visit to the country. There are no neon billboards, skyscrapers, or crowded intersections. Instead, thIs area in the southwest of Honshu, Japan’s main island, offers its own unique array of views that travelers won’t find anywhere else.

Spread over 5,500 square miles, it features organic farms, centuries-old artistic practices, historic islands with one-of-a-kind ecology, and, according to legend, the gods’ favorite meeting place in the world.

Most foreign visitors never see it. Japan’s famous high-speed rail system does not pass through San’in, which leaves it off many travelers’ radars altogether.

But it’s well worth a trip.

The San’in region consists of Japan’s two least populous prefectures, Shimane and Tottori, which sit between the Sea of Japan and the northern side of the country’s Chukogu mountains.

Only about one million of Japan’s 125 million residents live there. “The Kojiki,” an important eighth-century Shinto text, depicts the San’in region as an annual gathering place for the gods.

One-third of the text’s stories take place in the region, with Shimane even being depicted as the birthplace of sake. (Though Nara and Hyogo might like to have a word – all three regions have important stories to share about their role in the beverage’s history.)

The land of the gods

Tales of Japanese mythology are woven into the San’in region’s most popular destinations. The most famous among them is the Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine, which dates back to the 700s. The Shinto shrine is one of the oldest in Japan, and as the Kojiki goes, it is believed to be an early stop on the gods’ annual meeting.

The shrine is associated with positive relationships and attracts many visitors praying for love or marriage. Its most famous feature is its 44-foot, 4.5-ton shimenawa, or twisted straw rope. The rope is the largest in Japan and every few years, local volunteers reweave it by hand.

Another destination believed to be frequented by the gods is nearby Inasa Beach, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Sea of Japan, known for its soft sandy shore. The larger-than-life rock where they are believed to gather, known as Benten-Jima, frames a picture-perfect view of the beach’s radiant sunsets.

Natural beauty without the crowds

For outdoorsy types, the San’in covers just about every base, from mountains to deserts, waterfalls to coastlines.

For starters, the region is home to the Uradome Coast, a 9-mile (14.5-kilometer) expanse of national park shoreline. Formed by eroded rocks, the park includes natural cliffs, caves, sea walls, and arches. It’s a prime space for kayaking, snorkeling, paddleboarding and waterfront hiking.

The region is also the backdrop to Japan’s only desert, a 10-mile cluster of rolling sand beside the Sea of Japan known as the Tottori Dunes. Visitors can sandboard here, but those who prefer skiing through fresh powder can find it just 60 miles west on Mount Daisen, the highest mountain in the Chikogu range.

In the warmer months, visitors explore its 5,673 feet by hiking and climbing, or they gaze out on its peak from the soothing waters of Kaike Onsen, the largest hot spring resort in the region.

For a more manicured approach to the outdoors, one of San’in’s most treasured gems is the internationally lauded Adachi Museum of Art, known for its 1.7 million square feet of garden space. Designed to be “a living painting,” it has been named Japan’s best traditional garden for 20 years straight by The Journal of Japanese Gardening, besting even the most frequented gardens in Tokyo and Kyoto.

For the boldest adventurers, San’in holds the distinction of having perhaps the most dangerous of the nation’s registered Important Treasures of Japan. This designation goes to Nageiredo Temple, a serene wooden Buddhist temple with a difficult location: the face of Mount Mitoku, a mountain with steep hundred-foot cliffs.

Hikers and religious pilgrims alike have been visiting for 1,300 years, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Climbers are forbidden from going it alone and must have their footwear assessed for safety before getting the okay to ascend.

Finding your way

Millions of Japanese travelers visit San’in each year, but only a few hundred thousand international travelers make their way there. Many foreign travelers come and go from Japan without knowing the San’in even exists.

“It’s not an easy place to just go visit,” says Baye Cooper, who traveled to San’in in late 2020 while he was living and working in nearby Yamaguchi prefecture.

One of the biggest hurdles to visiting? The San’in is not on a Shinkansen line. Japan’s famous “bullet train” high-speed rail system connects Japan’s most popular travel destinations, including major cities like Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka.

If a traveler wants to access the San’in via train from Tokyo, they’ll need to take the Shinkansen halfway there, to the city of Okayama, and connect to the San’in’s local line. With just one transfer needed, it’s a simple ride but a long one, clocking in at around six hours.

Many travelers interested in visiting the San’in region start their journeys in Osaka or Hiroshima, which can trim the journey down to around three to four hours, depending on which city they’re traveling to.

There are faster ways to get there. Visitors can take a domestic flight from Tokyo to one of the San’in region’s regional airports, in the cities of Izumo and Yonago, and be there in 1.5 hours or less.

The only direct international routes that currently service San’in are from Hong Kong (via Hong Kong Airlines) and Seoul (via Air Seoul), but the San’in Tourism Organization has hopes of expanding to more international flight routes. Some cities offer bus service to the region, and of course, car rentals are a great option for accessing San’in’s more rural destinations.

San’in’s relative seclusion may make it hard to access, but it’s also exactly what makes it worthy of getting to know – and, if the stars align, making lifelong memories there. “[Travelers] should make the commute,” Cooper says. “It’s worth the experience.”

Virgin Galactic — the space tourism company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson — is finally prepared to launch its first space tourists to the edge of the cosmos, a major step toward delivering on decades of promises.

The company’s rocket-powered space plane, VSS Unity, is scheduled to take off from a New Mexico spaceport attached to a massive twin-fuselage mothership. A livestream of the event is slated to begin Thursday at 11 a.m. ET.

The flight will carry three customers: entrepreneur and health and wellness coach Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastatia Mayers — the first space travelers from Antigua who won their seats in a fundraiser drawing — as well as former Olympian Jon Goodwin, who competed as a canoeist in the 1972 Munich Summer Games. Goodwin will become the second person with Parkinson’s disease to travel to space.

The group’s journey will begin at Virgin Galactic’s spaceport in New Mexico, where the passengers will board VSS Unity as it sits attached beneath the wing of the mothership called VMS Eve.

VMS Eve will take off much like an airplane, barreling down a runway before ascending to more than 40,000 feet (12,192 meters). After reaching its designated altitude, VMS Eve will release the VSS Unity, which will then fire its rocket engine for about one minute as it swoops directly upward, sending it vaulting toward the stars.

The vehicle is slated to venture more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, the altitude the US government considers the edge of outer space. (Internationally, the Kármán line, 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level, is often used to mark the boundary between our planet and space — but there’s a lot of gray area.)

The space plane will reach supersonic speeds as it hurls upward. And at the peak of its flight, the vehicle will spend a few minutes in weightlessness as it enters free fall and glides back to the spaceport for a runway landing. The journey is expected to last about an hour and a half.

Meet the crew

This mission comes on the heels of the success of Virgin Galactic’s first commercial mission, which launched in June. That inaugural flight was a research-focused mission with Italian air force-funded passengers — rather than celebrities and wealthy thrill seekers similar to those flown by Virgin Galactic’s chief competitor, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. (Future Virgin Galactic flights, however, are expected to include high-profile customers.)

Thursday’s mission will mark Virgin Galactic’s first to include tourists, or passengers flying for the experience rather than in a professional capacity.

Schahaff and her daughter Mayers won their seats in a drawing that raised $1.7 million in grants for Space for Humanity, a nonprofit focused on expanding access to space.

They will be among the first from the Caribbean islands to travel to space; a Jamaican American and Virgin Galactic employee flew on a test mission in May.

“When I was two years old, just looking up to the skies, I thought, ‘How can I get there?’ But, being from the Caribbean, I didn’t see how something like this would be possible,” Schahaff said in a news release last month. “The fact that I am here, the first to travel to space from Antigua, shows that space really is becoming more accessible.”

Mayers, 18, is a second-year undergraduate studying philosophy and physics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She will become the second-youngest person to travel to space, according to Virgin Galactic. (The current record belongs to Oliver Daemen, who was 18 when he accompanied Bezos on Blue Origin’s inaugural passenger flight in 2021.)

Goodwin was one of the earliest ticket holders on Virgin Galactic, which opened its first sales more than a decade ago.

Goodwin said he was determined not to let his 2014 Parkinson’s diagnosis stand in the way of joining a flight.

“And now for me to go to space with Parkinson’s is completely magical,” he said in a news release. “I hope this inspires all others facing adversity and shows them that challenges don’t have to inhibit or stop them from pursuing their dreams.”

Advocates have long made the case that space travel is uniquely suited for people with physical disabilities, as the weightless environment could prove easier to navigate and enhance mobility.

The European Space Agency recently enlisted John McFall, a Paralympic sprinter who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident when he was 19, to test that hypothesis further. McFall will participate in feasibility studies to pinpoint how to adapt space stations and other spacecraft to suit the needs of people with disabilities.

What’s next for space tourism

Carrying its first tourists is a massive milestone for Virgin Galactic, which was founded in 2004 and has long missed deadlines for delivering on promises to conduct frequent trips to the edge of space.

Now that it’s operational, the company can turn toward its lengthy backlog of customers who have signed up for a flight. Virgin Galactic has sold about 800 tickets, including 600 at prices up to $250,000 and another couple hundred at $450,000 per ticket.

During an August 4 call with investors, CEO Michael Colglazier called the company’s recent successes an “outstanding achievement.”

“Galactic 02 is going to set the stage for a new era of suborbital human spaceflight that will dramatically broaden access to space for private individuals,” he said, using the name for Thursday’s mission.

In the lead-up to 2023, Virgin Galactic had been undergoing a lengthy “enhancement” process to upgrade its flight hardware. The work came after several missteps in earlier test flights.

The company plans to continue using its VSS Unity space plane and VMS Eve mothership until at least 2026, then debut an updated line of hardware referred to as “Delta ships.”

Those crafts are expected to cost less to produce and be capable of conducting more flights in less time, Colglazier added.

A convoy of about 40 pick-up trucks arrived at nightfall on Sunday evening, bringing troops from other parts of the country to both reassure a nervous public and prepare for potential battle.

Niger has been engulfed in political chaos since late last month, when President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in a coup d’etat by the presidential guard. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) responded days later by enacting sanctions and issuing an ultimatum to the ruling military junta: stand down within a week or face a potential military intervention.

That deadline came and went Sunday without any change in the political situation. Bazoum remains deposed and his whereabouts are still unknown to the public. The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, the junta’s formal name, is still effectively in charge of Niger. A junta leader said Sunday that Niger’s armed forces would be closing the country’s airspace due to the threat of military intervention.

What comes next is unclear. ECOWAS leaders say their preference is find a diplomatic solution to the crisis but have maintained they willing to resort to the use of force as a last resort to return Niger’s democratically elected government to power. The bloc is set to hold another meeting on the situation on Thursday.

ECOWAS head and former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said Monday that she believes the group will be able to find a resolution to the situation in Niger.

She added that ECOWAS would not “take any step that would result in a destruction of countries, or the death of people.”

UN Secretary General António Guterres on Monday meanwhile said he was “concerned” over Bazoum’s continued detention, according to a statement from his spokesperson.

Uncertainty in Niamey

The uncertainty has rattled residents in Niamey, the capital. Some people flocked to supermarkets purchase staples like rice and cooking oil in bulk, while others attempted to flee. Employees of local bus companies said most lines out of the capital were fully booked.

At the busy Wadata market, east of the capital’s center, many shoppers buying food and necessities Monday voiced apprehension about what might come.

“Our country is in the process of falling into a crisis that we have never experienced, we’re really afraid,” said Mariama Sabo, a 31-year-old cleaner.

Salifou, a 27-year-old fruit seller, worried for his business. He imports his produce from Benin, but the border between the two countries is now closed.

“My stock is entirely depleted and that really worries me,” Salifou said.

Others shared concerns about the rising cost of food.

“The authorities should show some sense of responsibility towards us or else it’s going to be difficult,” a woman named Salamatou said. “They have to bring peace, but also bring prices down.”

Pro-junta demonstrators, meanwhile, gathered Sunday at a 30,000-seat stadium in Niamey to voice their support for the military government and their opposition to ECOWAS sanctions.

Despite its wealth of resources, Niger remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Many Nigeriens, especially in the younger generation, still see France as an imperial power responsible for the prevailing poverty levels in their country. Those who back the new military government see its rule as an opportunity to distance itself diplomatically from French influence.

Ali Maikano, a bricklayer living in the capital, said he was ready to fight alongside the army to push back against French interests in the country.

The future of Niger’s elected government is of particular importance to the country’s democratic neighbors and Western partners. The United States and France stationed hundreds of troops, many of whom assist with counterterrorism missions, on the basis that Niger was a relatively stable democracy in a region fraught with political upheaval, terrorism and Islamist insurgencies.

The State Department has had direct contact with military junta leaders in Niger “urging them to step aside” in the last week to ten days, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

“There has been direct contact with military leaders. I’m not going to say at what level or with whom, but there has been direct contact with military leaders urging them to step aside,” Miller said.

Pressed on if the State Department has sent a point person to Niger to handle the country’s ongoing crisis, Miller would not get into any specific trips or meetings. Miller said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior officials have been “involved in conversations and we’ll continue to have senior officials involved in conversations.”

Russia has attempted in recent years to capitalize on the geopolitical situation in West Africa to gain clout and influence, especially through the mercenary group Wagner. Wagner has a presence in several countries, including in neighboring Mali, where a military government took charge after a coup in 2021. Wagner forces have been contracted to help local defense forces against rebellions and insurgencies, and suppress opposition.

The French Foreign Ministry said that Wagner had been in touch with the coup leaders in Niger, but it was unclear if the two sides were moving toward a partnership.

“We can see that Wagner is in an opportunistic and predatory logic, so they may be tempted to take advantage of the whole situation,” a spokesperson for the ministry told journalists.

Shortly after the putsch, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin celebrated the coup and appeared to pitch the private military company to Niger’s new leaders.

Niger’s democratic neighbors worry the coup could have a domino effect given the fragility of West African democracies like those in Mali and Burkina Faso, where a coup took place in 2022.

Both countries are now backing the Nigerien junta. They said in a joint statement last week that they would consider any military intervention in Niger “an act of war” against all three countries.

Both countries are sending delegations to Niger’s capital Niamey, “in solidarity with the people of Niger,” according to the Malian Armed Forces. 

As the war in Sudan nears four months of intense fighting, morgues in the capital Khartoum have reached their capacity, aid workers say, leaving thousands of corpses to rot on the streets as doctors and relief organizations warn of a looming cholera outbreak.

Khartoum’s morgues have reached “breaking point,” international aid group Save The Children said Tuesday.

Bodies in the morgues are also decomposing as prolonged power outages have left them without refrigeration, the group said. There is also no medical staff left, leaving the corpses “exposed and untreated.”

The disaster is the latest hazard after months of clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which broke out in mid-April as both parties tried to take control of the capital.

The violence has killed at least 1,105 people and injured 12,115 as of July 11, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported last month, citing data from the Federal Ministry of Health. It said the actual numbers are likely much higher.

At least 435 children have been killed and at least 2,025 others injured, said UNICEF. On average, a child is killed or injured every hour, the UN body calculates .

“A horrifying combination of rising numbers of corpses, severe water shortages, non-functioning hygiene and sanitation services, and lack of water treatment options are also prompting fears of a cholera outbreak in the city,” Save The Children said in a statement.

The disease often surges in war zones, spreading rapidly through contaminated water. Sudan typically witnesses a rise in cholera cases during its annual rain season, which began in June, the aid group said, but the current absence of functioning public health labs makes it “difficult to assess the state of the crisis.”

Cholera can kill within hours if left untreated. Most of the hospitals in the capital and other states are out of service, Save the Children added.

Sudanese medical workers are sounding the alarm over looming outbreaks.

Abdallah Attiya, a member of the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate, warned in an interview with Al Arabiya news channel last week of “disease and epidemiological disasters” amid the overcrowding of morgues.

“The inability to give those who have died a dignified burial is yet another element of the suffering of families in Khartoum,” said Dr. Bashir Kamal Eldin Hamid, Save the Children’s Health and Nutrition Director, in a Tuesday statement.

“We are seeing a health crisis in the making, on top of a crisis of sorrow, fear and pain,” he said.

Escalating fighting

The conflict escalated again this week, with both rival forces claiming to have inflicted heavy damage on the other. No decisive breakthroughs or peace talks are in sight.

The fighting has left Khartoum in ruins. More than 4 million people have fled the violence across Sudan since the fighting broke out, with more than half having fled the capital alone, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Around 20.3 million people across the country – more than 42% of its population – have also been driven to high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC).

The clashes are seen as a power struggle between Sudan’s military ruler, the SAF head, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (widely known as Hemedti), the country’s deputy and head of the RSF.

The two men were once allies who worked together to topple Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and played a pivotal role in the military coup in 2021. But their relationship soured amid negotiations to integrate the RSF into the country’s military as part of plans to restore civilian rule.

The RSF said in a statement Tuesday that it had “achieved a new victory in a number of areas in Omdurman,” claiming it killed more than 170 SAF soldiers and imprisoned 83.

The SAF said it had lost four of its fighters and claimed to have inflicted “heavy losses” on the RSF, killing and wounding hundreds of their fighters. Efforts by the United States and Saudi Arabia to achieve peace have been mostly frozen. Last month, the RSF said that achieving peace with its rival SAF is “impossible” after talks in Jeddah collapsed.