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Benefits of travel insurance for international trip

Travel insurance for international trips is a type of insurance policy designed to provide financial protection and assistance to travelers while they are abroad. Travel insurance provides financial protection and peace of mind while traveling, and offers several benefits. Travel insurance typically covers a wide range of potential risks and expenses, including: Medical coverage: Travel insurance can provide coverage for medical expenses incurred due to injury or illness while traveling, including hospitalization, medical evacuation, and prescription drugs. Trip cancellation coverage: Travel insurance can provide coverage for trip cancellations or interruptions due to unexpected events such as illness, weather-related incidents, or natural disasters. Lost or delayed baggage coverage: Travel insurance can provide coverage for lost, stolen, or delayed baggage, as well as travel documents like passports. 24/7 emergency assistance: Travel insurance typically includes 24/7 emergency assistance services, such as medical and travel assistance, that can help travelers in the case of unexpected events. Financial protection: Travel insurance can provide financial protection for travelers by covering costs associated with unexpected events like trip cancellations, medical emergencies, and more. Travel insurance is designed to provide peace of mind and financial protection for travelers. Travel insurance provides a safety net for travelers and can help protect against unexpected events, ensuring a stress-free and enjoyable trip. Don’t forget carefully review the coverage and benefits provided by a travel insurance policy before purchasing. How to choose the best travel insurance? Choosing the best travel insurance policy for your needs can be a complex process. There are some key factors to consider when making your decision: Coverage: Make sure that the policy covers the risks you are most concerned about, such as medical expenses, trip cancellations, and lost or delayed baggage. Review the policy details carefully to understand what is and is not covered. Cost: Consider the cost of the policy, as well as any deductibles or co-payments that may apply. Make sure to compare the cost of different policies to find the best value for your money. Reputation and reliability: Choose a reputable and reliable insurance provider with a strong track record of providing quality coverage and assistance to travelers. Check online reviews and ratings to learn more about the provider’s reputation. Emergency assistance: Look for a policy that provides 24/7 emergency assistance services, such as medical and travel assistance, that can help you in the case of unexpected events. Customization: Consider whether the policy can be customized to meet your specific needs, such as providing coverage for pre-existing medical conditions or sports-related activities. Claims process: Make sure that the policy’s claims process is straightforward and easy to understand, and that you have all the information you need to make a claim if necessary. Exclusions and limitations: Understand the policy’s exclusions and limitations, such as any restrictions on coverage for certain types of activities or destinations. By considering these factors, you can make an informed decision and choose the best travel insurance policy for your needs.
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Ever Given Suez Canal blockage should not drive up petrol prices, but Easter might

The blockage of the Suez Canal by a grounded container ship may disrupt world trade, but is unlikely to push fuel prices higher in the short term, experts say. Key points: The Suez Canal blockage is affecting around 12 percent of global goods trade But analysts say Australian petrol prices should remain unaffected as oil prices have not risen Analysts warn that petrol prices in Sydney and Melbourne may rise in the lead up to Easter due to the end of the discounting cycle Giant container ship, the Ever Given, which got stuck diagonally across the canal on Tuesday (Egypt time), has blocked traffic in both directions on one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. Around 12 percent of global trade in goods passes through the canal, which has some analysts concerned it could see supply disruptions and possible price rises. “If it takes longer than a few days to move, it could exert further upward pressure on shipping costs and exacerbate goods shortages,” said Gabriella Dickens from Capital Economics. “The grounding of the Ever Given could hardly have come at a worse time – freight rates for routes from Asia to the Mediterranean have already trebled since mid-November, with shipping capacity struggling to keep up with demand for traded goods.” While it is hoped the vessel can be moved within days, the CEO of the Dutch company tasked with freeing the ship said it was possible it may take weeks. With the canal currently shut to new traffic, some shipping firms may opt to take the detour around southern Africa, but that comes at a cost in time and money. “With bunker [ship fuel] prices plunging as low as $US250 per tonne in April, a third of their level at the start of the year, many operators opted to give a wide berth to Suez’s transit fees, which work out at roughly $320,000 for the average container ship,” noted Reuters columnist Ed Cropley. “Ever Given has left shipping operators with a headache. With bunker prices back above $500 a tonne, the extra week round the Cape of Good Hope will cost $350,000 in fuel alone, assuming rough consumption of 100 tonnes per day.” The rise in freight costs, both sea, and air, as well as shortages in some crucial components, such as computer chips, have raised fears that both producer and consumer prices will rise more rapidly than they have for many years. Aside from increasing the cost of some goods you might buy in the shops, these inflation fears have been a key factor in recent financial market volatility. Fuel prices may rise, but not because of Suez While the price of some goods shipped via container might be affected by the current Suez crisis, a leading local analyst believes Australian fuel prices are unlikely to be pushed higher. CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman told ABC News that worries about weaker demand are currently more important than any risk of supply disruptions. “Concerns around demand because of European and Indian COVID outbreaks and lockdowns are outweighing supply worries around the Suez blockage,” he said. This has been reflected in benchmark Brent crude oil prices. While oil prices bounced a couple of times this week in response to the Suez blockage, it had been from one-month lows, and both times they quickly fell back down again. Brent crude oil was trading at $US61.95 a barrel. However, Mr. Felsman warned some consumers may still see prices rise at local service stations. He told ABC News that Sydney and Melbourne were currently near the low point of their retail fuel-discounting cycles, with average prices around $1.35 and $1.34 a liter respectively for basic unleaded petrol. With Easter approaching at the end of next week, Mr. Felsman warned that Sydney and Melbourne motorists could soon see average prices jump as high as $1.70 a liter, a level experienced by some Brisbane motorists over recent days at the peak of its retail price cycle. Mr. Felsman tipped petrol prices in Brisbane to actually fall slightly heading into Easter as the discounting cycle resumes. “The retail cycle is more of an influence in prices in the near term than Suez,” he explained. Most of Australia’s refined fuel comes from Singapore, which sources most of its crude oil from the Middle East, which does not have to ship through the Suez Canal. Mr. Felsman said, if anything, Australians should expect cheaper fuel prices over the next few weeks as the cost of refined products from Singapore had recently eased from 13-month highs. Source: abc.net.au
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Serial killer Charles Sobhraj is ‘trying to bag a Hollywood movie deal’

Serial killer Charles Sobhraj who inspired real-life drama The Serpent after murdering at least a dozen tourists on 1970s hippie trail in Asia is ‘trying to bag a Hollywood movie deal’ Charles Sobhraj drugged and killed at least a dozen people on the 70s Hippie Trail. Currently serving life imprisonment in Nepal for the murder of a backpacker in 1975. His crimes were the inspiration behind the recent real-life BBC drama The Serpent. The serial killer whose horrific crimes inspired real-life BBC drama The Serpent has revealed he’s trying to bag a Hollywood movie deal when speaking about being released from prison. Charles Sobhraj drugged and killed at least a dozen people on the Hippie Trail in Asia in the 1970s, with the help of his besotted lover and accomplice Marie-Andrée Leclerc. Now, it seems the criminal, known as The Serpent, is looking to capitalize off his notoriety by suggesting Sir Richard Branson and Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, bankroll a film based on his life. Sobhraj, who continues to protest his innocence, told the Sunday Mirror from his prison cell in Nepal that he would speak out if he is ever released in exchange for the contact details of Branson and Scott. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the killing of an American backpacker in 1975, and despite his outlandish claims he’ll be released in two weeks, it is thought he will remain in jail until at least 2024. Charles Sobhraj, pictured being escorted to court by Nepalese police in 2014, is trying to bag a Hollywood movie deal after leaving prison The criminal drugged and killed at least a dozen people on the Hippie Trail in Asia in the 1970s with the help of his besotted lover and accomplice Marie-Andrée Leclerc. The pair are pictured in 1986 ‘I want to propose a movie deal’, he said, ‘My book is going to be published in about one month.’ There is no suggestion either Scott or Branson want to be involved with the criminal, or that Sobhraj will be released in the coming weeks. He claimed in the bizarre interview that he would be free in two weeks because his 2004 trial in Nepal was illegal and that members of the United Nations Human Rights Committee have called for his release. However, the publication reports that the human rights agency has said it neither acquitted him nor called for his release. Sobhraj is known as the Serpent because his ability to evade capture inspired the eight-part drama which starred Tahar Rahim as the killer and Jenna Coleman as his besotted lover. The criminal financed his lifestyle by posing as either a salesman or drug dealer to impress tourists, who he then drugged, robbed and often murdered. By 1975 the killer was joined by Ajay Chowdhury, a young Indian man who would help him, scam tourists, by helping them out of situations he had caused, for example providing shelter to victims he had poisoned. While he claimed that murders were often accidental drug overdoses, it was later alleged by investigators that his motive for the murder was silencing victims who threatened to expose him. According to Serpentine by Jennie Bolivar, the first murder took place in 1975, when he drowned a 21-year-old woman from Seattle called Teresa Knowlton. Her body was found in a tidal pool in the Gulf of Thailand a flowered bikini, inspiring the killers’ nickname ‘the bikini killer’. Before her death was discovered, Marie willingly posed as Knowlton to cash in the travellers’ cheques she was carrying worth thousands of dollars. His next victim was Vitali Hakim, whose burnt body was found on the road to the Pattaya resort, followed by Henk Bintanja and his fiancée Cornelia Hemker, who had been poisoned by Sobhraj and then nursed back to health. While they were staying with him, a visit from Hakim’s French girlfriend, Charmayne Carrou threatened to expose him, and so he strangled the pair and burned their bodies. He murdered at least two others in Thailand before fleeing to Kolkata, where he killed student Avoni Jacob simply to obtain his passport. He later murdered Jean-Luc Solomon by poisoning him. In 1976, Sobhraj attempted to drug a group of 60 French students on holiday in New Delhi in an attempt to rob them of passports and cash by giving them sleeping pills disguised as antibiotics. But this time it backfired when the poison began working a lot faster than he expected. When the first few students began falling where they stood, the others became alarmed and called the police. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. But before his sentence was due to end in 1986, he threw a party for the guards and drugged them with sleeping pills to escape, only to be arrested in Goa following a nationwide manhunt by police in India. He knew that there was a warrant for his arrest in Thailand, where he could face the death penalty and banked on being locked up in India for another decade. His plan worked and when he was released in 1997, with no country to extradite him to, the Indian authorities allowed him to return to Paris where he lived in luxury promoting his infamy. A sighting of Sobhraj in Kathmandu in 2003 led to his arrest for the murders of two Canadians there in 1975. A Nepali court sentenced the notorious criminal to life imprisonment in connection with the killing of an American backpacker in 1975. WHO IS CHARLES SOBRAJ? Born to an Indian father, Hatchand Sobhraj and Vietnamese mother Tran Loan Phung, Sobhraj grew up in Saigon before his parents divorced and his father cut off all contact with the family. He was later adopted by his mother’s new boyfriend, a French Army lieutenant stationed in French Indochina, who is thought to have neglected him in favour of his own children with Sobhraj’s mother. As a teenager he spits his time between Indochina and >>Read more
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IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine

Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that a backup power line between the country’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and a nearby thermal power station was deliberately disconnected today in order to extinguish a fire, but the line itself was not damaged. The ZNPP continues to receive the electricity it needs for safety from its sole operating reactor. After the ZNPP’s connection to its last remaining operational 750 kilovolts (kV) line was lost late on Friday, the 330 kV reserve line had been used to deliver electricity from the ZNPP to the grid. Ukraine informed IAEA that this backup line will be reconnected once the fire has been extinguished. One of the ZNPP’s six reactors continues to produce the electricity the plant requires for cooling and other nuclear safety functions. The reactor will be connected to the grid when the 330 kV line is switched on again. Also today, four IAEA experts left the ZNPP as planned after several days of essential nuclear safety, security and safeguards work. Two others are staying to maintain a continuing IAEA presence at the site, enabling the Agency to observe the situation there and provide independent assessments. The six experts arrived at the ZNPP on 1 September as part of a team led by Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi that crossed the frontline to establish the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) at the plant in southern Ukraine. The ZNPP is held by Russian forces since early March, but its Ukrainian staff is continuing to operate the plant. The IAEA experts on the ground have been assessing the physical damage at the ZNPP, determining the functionality of the main and backup nuclear safety and security systems, and evaluating the staff’s working conditions as well as the plant’s current emergency response capacities, among other important activities. Over the past few days, safeguards inspectors have also performed urgent safeguards activities on the site. The plant’s Ukrainian staff told the IAEA experts today that they plan to repair the 750 kV line that went down on Friday but that it would take several days to do so. A secure off-site power supply from the grid and backup power supply systems are essential for ensuring nuclear safety. This requirement is among the seven indispensable nuclear safety and security pillars that the Director General outlined at the beginning of the conflict. Over the past month, there have been numerous shelling incidents at or near the ZNPP, causing damage at the facility and raising widespread concern about the risk of a severe nuclear accident potentially jeopardizing human health and the environment. Shelling at the ZNPP on 1 September damaged an oil tank containing turbine lubrication oil, and there was renewed shelling today. Director General Grossi will on Tuesday issue a report about the nuclear safety, security, and safeguards situation in Ukraine – including the findings from the mission to the ZNPP – and later the same day brief the United Nations Security Council about the mission to the plant. Source: iaea.org
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Climate change could worsen allergy season by up to 60%

Bad news for hay fever sufferers: Climate change could worsen allergy season by up to 60%, new model predicts. Experts studied pollen levels and weather conditions in Europe over decades. They found rain and air temperature before pollen season were key indicators. They can inform just how severe the pollen and allergens are expected to be. This could allow professionals and sufferers to plan in advance for a bad year. People suffering from hay fever could be in for a worse time of it in the future, as a new study shows that climate change could worsen allergy season by up to 60%. A team of scientists from the University of Worcester created new statistical models to forecast the changes in pollen severity as air temperature and rainfall changes. Based on long-term assessments looking at year-to-year changes in pollen concentration, they found that climate change would have a significant impact. Lead author Alexander Kurganskiy says projected changes in the climate could increase allergy season severity by up to 60% over current levels. It is hoped that by being able to forecast the risk, and understand potential changes, people with allergic rhinitis can prepare for the pollen season to reduce exposure. How can you treat hay fever? Vaseline: Apply the jelly around the nose to trap pollen particles Nasal filters: They make a physical barrier between the pollen particles and the nasal membrane Air purifiers: The home appliances remove pollen particles from the air Eye drops and tablets: They contain antihistamine to reduce inflammation Immunotherapy: The process involves consuming the allergen over a number of years to build the body’s tolerance While up to 40% of Europeans suffer from pollen allergies, there is currently no clear guidance on how best to prepare for upcoming allergy seasons. Until this new study it had also remained unknown how allergy season severity may change as the climate continues to warm due to human activities. To address these gaps, Kurganskiy and colleagues built a statistical model to simulate and predict the sum of pollen concentrations, also known as the seasonal pollen integral (SPIn) figure. They did this for each of 28 sites throughout the entire grass pollen season across Europe, and determined ‘no connection’ between pollen severity and different sites. This suggests each site should be considered individually when developing a long-term assessment approach to hay fever treatment, Kurganskiy explained. Each site was studied year-to-year to look at annual variations in grass SPIn based on the net production of organic carbon of grasses at 34 pollen monitoring stations. As part of the study they used the Joint UK Land Environmental Simulator (JULES) model to simulate the net production of organic carbon for more than 407 pollen seasons at these stations between 1996 and 2016. This aspect of the study allowed them to find that small variations in grass growth led to large variations in the quantity of pollen. ‘Our findings have the potential to be used in atmospheric dispersion models for Northwest Europe or larger regions throughout the world where sufficient robust pollen data are available,’ Kurganskiy said. Allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever, is an inflammation in the nose caused by overreaction of the immune system to allergens in the air. Managing allergic rhinitis symptoms is challenging and requires timely intervention, including preparing for how severe the upcoming allergy season is going to be. The new research shows that the annual severity of any given season is government by the weather conditions on the run up to the pollen season. Knowing this will allow future forecasters to make predictions for the likely risk levels for high end allergy sufferers, giving people time to prepare. For example, the team found that each region they monitored had a different level of severity suggesting that it could be possible to plan holidays to avoid the worst effects of pollen in any given year. The findings have been published in the journal Science Advances. HAY FEVER: AN ALLERGIC REACTION TO POLLEN Hay fever is an allergic reaction to pollen, a fine powder which comes from plants. There is more pollen in the air in the spring and summer when plants are flowering. The reaction usually happens when pollen comes into contact with someone’s eyes, nose, mouth or throat. Hay fever symptoms include coughing and sneezing; a runny or blocked nose; itchy, red or watery eyes; itching throat, nose, mouth or ears; headaches and tiredness. People suffering from the allergy can put Vaseline around their nose to trap the pollen, wear wraparound sunglasses to keep pollen out of their eyes, wash clothes regularly and vacuum and dust indoors. Avoiding grass, cut flowers and smoke can help reduce symptoms, as can drying clothes indoors where pollen is less likely to stick to them. Read more at DailyMail.co.uk
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