Student spends $13K to return to college in Australia amid coronavirus travel ban - New York Post

A Chinese college student shelled out more than $13,000 to get to school in Australia during a travel ban imposed by the country, according to a new report.

Karen Ji, who is studying law and commerce in Sydney, told the BBC she was distressed when she learned of the Australian government’s ban on arrivals from mainland China.

“I bought such an expensive ticket in order to come back, but the flight was canceled so I felt very angry and panicked,” she said.

Ji had to decide between missing the start of the university year — or spending thousands to fly to a third country, where she was required to remain quarantined for two weeks before heading to Australia.

She picked the latter, and ended up staying in Thailand for 16 days with her mother before flying to Australia — all to the tune of about $13,200 — so she could get to class in time.

“I still feel very tired because it took me so many days and cost me so much to come back again,” Ji told the BBC.

Other Chinese students have been unable to afford flights to third countries, leaving them stranded in China and unable to return in time for classes, according to the report.

Universities have offered up to nearly $5,000 in cash grants to help students in those situations.

China Southern Airlines Flight CZ319 arrives at Perth International Airport.Getty Images

“We did not take this decision lightly,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra after a national security committee meeting last month. “We are very mindful of the disruption and economic impacts of these arrangements.”

The Chinese embassy has slammed the ban and urged the Australian government to lift it as soon as possible.

“International students, we feel very angry about it,” Ji told the BBC. “We feel like it’s a betrayal to our international students.”

More than 200,000 Chinese students study at Australian universities — and many of them went home for Lunar New Year, The Age reported in late January.

“I know some Australian citizens are probably liking this travel ban, it is good for them, for their safety,” Ji said. “So I think it is very hard to judge the travel ban at this moment. I feel so happy that I can enter Australia for continuing my education.”

A total of 41 confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported in Australia as of Wednesday, according to the Department of Health. Twenty-one of these cases are reported to have recovered. One person who was previously on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died.

Meanwhile, Chinese officials are predicting victory over the coronavirus outbreak as the number of new cases remains on the downswing.

Mainland China saw 119 new confirmed cases of the bug on Tuesday — down slightly from 125 the previous day, according to the National Health Commission. The number of deaths rose by 38, bringing the total toll on the mainland to 2,981.

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2020-03-04 16:01:00Z
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Coronavirus travel ban in Australia: Chinese student spends A$20,000 to get to class - BBC News

Karen Ji is a Chinese student studying law and commerce in Sydney, Australia.

When the Australian government announced a travel ban on arrivals from mainland China, Karen had to decide between missing the start of the university year, or the expense of travelling to a third country.

She told the BBC she ended up spending A$20,000 (£10,000; $13,200) and two weeks quarantined in Thailand to get to class on time.

Produced and edited by Isabelle Rodd; interview by Phil Mercer; camera by Matt Leiper

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2020-03-04 10:13:27Z
52780645245410

Coronavirus travel ban in Australia: Chinese student spends A$20,000 to get to class - BBC News

Karen Ji is a Chinese student studying law and commerce in Sydney, Australia.

When the Australian government announced a travel ban on arrivals from mainland China, Karen had to decide between missing the start of the university year, or the expense of travelling to a third country.

She told the BBC she ended up spending A$20,000 (£10,000; $13,200) and two weeks quarantined in Thailand to get to class on time.

Produced and edited by Isabelle Rodd; interview by Phil Mercer; camera by Matt Leiper

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2020-03-04 06:10:01Z
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'Gardens and graveyards' of coral discovered in hidden canyons off Australia's coast - Fox News

Coral blooms in the abyssal depths of Australia's southern coast. (Credit: ROV SuBastian/ SOI)

The South Australian coast is surrounded by a labyrinth of underwater canyons, many of them still unexplored. Last week, an international team of researchers (and their underwater robot companion) completed a survey of three such canyons, uncovering a hidden world of both thriving coral gardens and ash-white coral graveyards.

According to the expedition members, the fate of these hidden ecosystems, which sit in the immediate path of the increasingly warm water flowing out of Antarctica's Southern Ocean, could be a preview of how farther-flung ocean life will react to ongoing global warming.

"This has global implications given these waters originate from around Antarctica [and] feed all of the major oceans and regulate our climate system," expedition member Malcolm McCulloch, of the University of Western Australia, said in a statement.

Related: Giant, weird-looking fish with 'startled eyes' washes up on Aussie beach

In their recent voyage, McCulloch and his colleagues aboard the research vessel R/V Falkor (named for the luck dragon of NeverEnding Story fame) explored the depths of three canyons on the South Australia coast — Bremer, Leeuwin and Perth canyons — descending for the first time into each area's abyssal zone, or the dark depths roughly 2.5 miles (4,000 meters) below the surface.

Beyond the obvious reason for such exploration (hidden worlds are awesome), scientists are interested in these submarine crannies because they sit on the front lines of oceanic climate change. Facing the Southern Ocean — the ocean that surrounds Antarctica and connects the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans with its clockwise-flowing current — these canyons are some of the first ecosystems on Earth to encounter the warming waters surging out of Antarctica's ocean.

Thanks to a mechanism called the Antarctic convergence (in which cold water flowing north clashes with warmer, south-flowing water), the currents leaving the Southern Ocean are remarkably rich in nutrients. That makes the submarine canyons of South Australia a hotspot for migrating animals. Bremer Canyon, for example, is home to the Southern Hemisphere's largest seasonal gathering of killer whales and often hosts traveling sharks, dolphins, squids and birds, the researchers said.

During their latest expedition, the crew of the Falkor learned that these canyons are bustling with life deep underwater. Each spot hosted lush gardens of coral, rich with marine life and bursting with color. However, each canyon (especially Leeuwin) also contained extensive pockets of dead and fossilized coral. According to the researchers, these corals bear the record of both recent, anthropogenic ocean warming, as well as longer-term changes to the world's climate. It's not clear yet what killed the coral in a given canyon, but researchers will begin answering that question as soon as Falkor returns to land.

This voyage was funded by the nonprofit Schmidt Ocean Institute, and the team's newest research has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal.

Originally published on Live Science.

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2020-03-04 10:01:29Z
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Coronavirus travel ban in Australia: Chinese student spends A$20,000 to get to class - BBC News

Karen Ji is a Chinese student studying law and commerce in Sydney, Australia.

When the Australian government announced a travel ban on arrivals from mainland China, Karen had to decide between missing the start of the university year, or the expense of travelling to a third country.

She told the BBC she ended up spending A$20,000 (£10,000; $13,200) and two weeks quarantined in Thailand to get to class on time.

Produced and edited by Isabelle Rodd; interview by Phil Mercer; camera by Matt Leiper

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2020-03-04 06:04:46Z
52780645245410

Coronavirus travel ban in Australia: Chinese student spends A$20,000 to get to class - BBC News

Karen Ji is a Chinese student studying law and commerce in Sydney, Australia.

When the Australian government announced a travel ban on arrivals from mainland China, Karen had to decide between missing the start of the university year, or the expense of travelling to a third country.

She told the BBC she ended up spending A$20,000 (£10,000; $13,200) and two weeks quarantined in Thailand to get to class on time.

Produced and edited by Isabelle Rodd; interview by Phil Mercer; camera by Matt Leiper

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2020-03-04 05:03:36Z
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Australia’s New South Wales has no more wildfires for first time since July: officials - Fox News

Australia’s state hardest-hit by the massive wildfires that raged for months is now blaze-free for the first time in more than 240 days, officials said.

The news out of New South Wales comes weeks after fire officials there said recent rainfall had helped contain the blazes.

“For the first time since early July 2019, there is currently no active bush or grass fires in #NSW. That’s more than 240 days of fire activity for the state,” the New South Wales Rural Fire Service tweeted Monday.

AUSTRALIA FIREFIGHTERS THANK 'BRAVE' AMERICAN, LOCAL VOLUNTEERS WITH BILLBOARD IN NYC'S TIMES SQUARE

Hours later, it also tweeted that rain was in the forecast for the state over the next eight days.

"The smiles are slowly getting bigger," they wrote.

For months, firefighters in Australia and from around the world battled wildfires that scorched homes and created mass evacuations in the eastern part of the country.

AUSTRALIA WILDFIRES 'CONTAINED' IN NEW SOUTH WALES FOR FIRST TIME IN 'EXHAUSTIN' FIRE SEASON

The fires caused widespread destruction starting toward the end of 2019, which was both the hottest and driest year in Australia’s recorded history, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

In all, the wildfires killed at least 33 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes.

Recent rains have helped drenched deadly wildfires in Australia. (NSWRFS)

Six firefighters were killed in New South Wales battling the blazes, including three Americans, who died when their C-130 Hercules water tanker plane crashed in January.

Last month, the fire service described the season as “very traumatic, exhausting and anxious” while reporting the blazes had been contained thanks in part to torrential rain, that also brought major flooding, damaging winds and dangerous surf.

“It has taken a lot of work by firefighters, emergency services and communities to get to this point,” they said.

Firefighters battle the Morton Fire as it consumes a home near Bundanoon, New South Wales, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. (AP Photo (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

HEAVY RAIN IN AUSTRALIA EXTINGUISHES MAJOR WILDFIRE, CAUSES FLASH FLOODING

New South Wales, which sits on the east coast of Australia and is home to the city of Sydney, was the worst affected state in the country. There were fires in every Australian state.

The blazes damaged World Heritage Areas, including the Blue Mountains and the Gondwana rainforests in New South Wales and Queensland, officials said.

Last month, the fire service used a donation from Silvercast Media, which owns a 4K HD resolution billboard in New York City's Times Square,  to thank the American firefighters in a 70-foot message.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE WEATHER COVERAGE FROM FOX NEWS

More than 200 U.S. firefighters were sent to Australia to fight bushfires for the first time since 2010. Firefighters from Australia were previously deployed to Northern California in 2018 to help with wildfires there.

Fox News' Travis Fedschun contributed to this report.

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2020-03-03 15:02:41Z
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