Many of the artifacts had marine life growing on them, but the team were able to identify a number of worked stone tools, including two possible grinding stones.

The findings show that these exploratory techniques are useful in detecting underwater archaeological sites, said the authors, who hope they can be used to systematically recover and investigate ancient artifacts.

The team urged the Australian government to enact legislation that would protect and manage Aboriginal sites along the coastline.

“Managing, investigating and understanding the archaeology of the Australian continental shelf in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditional owners and custodians is one of the last frontiers in Australian archaeology,” Benjamin said.

“Our results represent the first step in a journey of discovery to explore the potential of archaeology on the continental shelves which can fill a major gap in the human history of the continent,” he added.

In 2016, a genomic study revealed that Aboriginal Australians are the oldest known civilization on Earth, with ancestries stretching back roughly 75,000 years.

The findings indicate Aboriginals diverged from Eurasians 57,000 years ago, following a single exodus from Africa around 75,000 years ago.

The data may show Aboriginal Australians came to the continent as early as 31,000 years ago.

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Since the United States has more confirmed coronavirus cases than anywhere else in the world, with numbers increasing in some states each day, US travelers are unlikely to be allowed in any time soon.

“The US’s chances are close to zero,” an EU diplomat told CNN. “With their infection rates … not even they can believe in that possibility.”

As long as the US-Canada border remains closed, visiting Niagara Falls in Ontario won’t be possible for US citizens.

LARS HAGBERG/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Where does this new world order leave US citizens with a penchant for travel?

Nostalgic for the pre-Covid days when a US passport promised access to much of the world? Anxious of how they’ll be perceived — and received — by foreign countries when restrictions are eventually loosened?

The future of travel for Americans, and whether they’ll be welcome again as tourists, is not clear; in many ways, it’s a moot point for as long as travel to certain regions is prohibited.

Many destinations, including Japan and Vietnam as well as the EU, have indicated they would be open to travel channels with China.

Uninvited

And for many people, that’s just how it should be.

A trip through Canada is unlikely to be a summer vacation option for Americans while the Covid-19 outbreak in the US continues to swell.

Courtesy Via Rail Canada

Colleen Friesen, who lives in a small resort town in British Columbia, hopes the US-Canadian border stays closed.

“The majority of Canadians are strongly against allowing Americans into the country due to the US’s rampant infection rate. Although some states seem to be managing the pandemic, when we see news of Oklahoma allowing an indoor rally, we just shake our collective heads,” Friesen tells CNN Travel via email.

Stacey McKenna, who is based in Colorado, isn’t ready to think about international travel of any kind right now, though she stipulates that it’s partially because the places on her radar “are extremely vulnerable economically and geographically,” and she wouldn’t be willing to risk exposing anyone.

“I think if I reach a place where I feel international (or even air) travel would be appropriate, then I’ll start asking myself if I think I’d be welcome.”

For New York-based travel writer Juliet Izon, who canceled a summer vacation in Italy months ago when there was still a glimmer of hope that things might resume, seeing where the United States is compared with other countries is disheartening and depressing.

Izon believes she’ll take the trip to Italy one day but says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if in certain countries if they don’t allow Americans in for a while or a really strict quarantine for years to come,” adding that the United States’ handling of Covid-19 was likely to be “another black mark against us.”

The other? The state of US politics.

Friesen, who says she appreciates her country’s politicians taking a backseat to the scientific and medical community, is scared of the way the virus in the United States “has become politicized.”

France is moving through stages of reopening, but US citizens are not yet on the list of countries who can visit.

BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images

But one EU diplomat ,who spoke to CNN earlier in the week on condition of anonymity, calls the US-EU travel decision a very sensitive issue and insists “it is only ever about health.”

“For sure, you can see not being on the list as something political, when one country is allowed in and another is not, but this is a misrepresentation of what we are doing. We are looking to open our borders, this is a positive step.”

In spite of this statement and the EU diplomat’s insistence that “we want people to come,” the much-changed travel landscape has some people concerned.

“Rather than thinking about the near future of travel, I’ve been pondering how all of this will affect xenophobia more generally,” says McKenna.

A holistic experience

Dennis Geronimus, New York University art history associate professor and chair, has historically combined business and leisure travel, often to Italy. He is not personally concerned about how he’ll be received when he travels internationally again — and he’s someone who’ll likely be able to travel on certain foreign soils well before other Americans.

This is in large part because of the nature of his travel. Geronimus is typically hosted by international colleagues and admits that it is “different than going on vacation somewhere not knowing anyone and then just diving into the culture and going to see the sites and seeing other foreigners at the sites as well.”

At this time, American travelers can’t go to Italy and cities such as Rome (above), at least not for pure leisure travel.

ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

There are steps Geronimus could take now to potentially be granted access forbidden to US leisure travelers, though he’d still be subject to the quarantine.

In any event, though he’d like to see the Raphael exhibition in Rome and collaborate with colleagues in Italy, he’s not planning a trip to the region anytime soon.

It might be deemed essential, but Geronimus doesn’t see it as essential enough. Instead, the professor would prefer to focus on the measures needed to resume on-site classes at NYU this fall.

Likewise, McKenna, whose background is in medical anthropology and public health, is thinking about other, bigger things: “I’ll be honest. I haven’t even gotten to the question of whether I think I would feel welcome as an American” since international travel is just not appropriate right now.

Says US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “We’ve been working with countries all across the world, including our friends in Europe and the EU proper to determine how it is we can best safely reopen international travel. It’s important for the United States to get Europeans the capacity to travel back to the United States.”

Safety first

It’s not about Americans, per se, says New Zealander Elen Turner, though it’s hard to ignore the restrictions impacting them along with the number of confirmed Covid deaths and cases.

“I think once the borders reopen properly, New Zealanders will be as welcoming of Americans as they will be with any other travelers,” Turner says.

But Friesen, who is troubled by the United States’ handling of the pandemic, says, “Given the push back on the pandemic protocols we’ve seen in the US, we just don’t believe that Americans will do the right thing.”

While New Zealand may form a travel bubble with Australia, it’s unlikely Americans will be allowed in any time soon.

Courtesy Shutterstock

However, for so many people CNN Travel spoke with, the health and safety of others — and doing what’s right — is paramount.

Chicago-based photographer and writer Joshua Mellin says: “I think to travel internationally for leisure right now demonstrates a total lack of care, you deserve whatever stares you get.”

Mellin adds: “I’m personally of the mind we’re all global citizens, but there’s still a reality you’re not entitled access to a foreign country, you’re granted entry.”

When it comes to granting foreigners entry, Turner would be comfortable taking cues from the New Zealand government. Right now, returning New Zealand citizens must quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, and no one else is allowed in.

If, down the line, the quarantine was applied to all visitors to New Zealand, what then?

“So if that was to be extended to all arrivals then I think New Zealanders would be fine with that because generally, our government has handled the pandemic well and there’s a high degree of trust in them,” Turner says.

She adds, however, that she doesn’t see this happening, does not envision a New Zealand opening itself up to foreigners until quarantine is no longer necessary.

The idea of a pre-holiday quarantine is the subject of scrutiny anyway.

‘We’re reopening’

While enforced quarantines will deter many a traveler, other regions with no quarantines in effect might entice them.

US travelers can fly to Mexico, but for many, the risks aren’t worth it. Pictured: Parroquia de San Miguell Arcángel in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.

Shutterstock

Whether hotel promotions or upgrades or relaxed policies on cancellation, the sweet chorus of “we are opening” could potentially jump start what has been a very dark period in the tourism sector.

For many of the US travelers that CNN Travel spoke to for this story, being welcomed or feeling welcome in another country is beside the point.

The danger of exposure and of being exposed looms. And then there’s the fear of being stuck somewhere far away.

Elizabeth Lavis, who is originally from upstate New York, found herself scrambling to get out of Vietnam in March amid the outbreak and sudden stringent travel restrictions. That ordeal and what’s transpired with the coronavirus since have made Lavis reluctant to go far away from home for the foreseeable future.

California-based writer Melanie Haikan would like to go to Costa Rica at some point and is only eyeing places that are eager for visitors.

Nell Lewis

California resident Melanie Haiken expresses a desire to help struggling economies as a tourist and is already thinking about her future travels, which include places not so close to home: “As to international travel, I would be ready to travel again in August, but would want to go places that are eager for visitors. I have my eye on Guatemala and Costa Rica, Turkey and Jordan, Scotland, Estonia, and a few other places that seem likely candidates based both on safety and how much their economies depend on tourism.”

Turkey, it would seem, is a likely candidate. On June 19, Turkish Airlines relaunched two North American routes to Istanbul with two others (Miami and Los Angeles) following on June 22 and 24 respectively. By late July, three additional US hubs will be operating flights to Turkey.

Any EU travel ban could change things, but as of June 23, when CNN spoke to Connecticut-based Caryn B. Davis about her upcoming trip to the Azores in Portugal, the travel journalist said she is still planning on going, hopefully in the next six weeks.

Pompeo expressed the importance of the economy in travel between the US and the EU, saying “It’s important for the United States to get Europeans the capacity to travel back to the United States. It’s important, very important for the Europeans to fully reconnect with the American economy as well.”

But until safety concerns can be adequately addressed, Mellin doesn’t think anyone, US citizen or not, should be going anywhere.

“There’s a responsibility of showing respect for other people and places as a traveler that starts at home and is inherently broken by visiting another country during a global pandemic.”

But in fact, international travel may resume sooner rather than later in some currently off-limits places. “I’m confident in the coming weeks we’ll figure that out as between not only the United States and the EU, but the United States and other parts of the world, too,” Pompeo said.

As to what it’ll be like?

“I think if anything, when we do travel, it’s certainly my hope that we bring that sense of, I guess, empathy to wherever we’re going … ,” Geronimus says.

CNN’s James Frater, Michael Conte and Luke McGee contributed reporting to this story.

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In a statement, the government said the move will allow people to “holiday abroad this summer, and also provide a vital lifeline for UK travel operators and those whose jobs rely on the travel industry.”

It added that a full list of the low-risk countries will be published next week and travel to those destinations will be able to resume the following week.

“Our new risk-assessment system will enable us to carefully open a number of safe travel routes around the world — giving people the opportunity for a summer holiday abroad and boosting the UK economy through tourism and business,” a government spokesperson said.

“But we will not hesitate to put on the brakes if any risks re-emerge, and this system will enable us to take swift action to re-introduce self-isolation measures if new outbreaks occur overseas,” the spokesperson added.

Risk assessment

Countries’ risk are calculated using factors including the “prevalence of coronavirus within the country, our confidence in the reliability of their data, and crucially the trajectory of the disease in the country,” a government statement read.

“Low risk countries in the green and amber categories will be exempt from public health measures at the border,” it added.

The 14-day quarantine will remain for international arrivals from “countries not yet deemed to be safe, as well as requirements for all passengers entering the UK to supply their contact information,” it added.

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After telling the Fijian parliament last week that his vision for a “post-Covid society” included a gradual resumption of its travel sector, Prime Minister Josaia “Frank” Voreqe Bainimarama has offered an open invitation to billionaires wishing to visit the country.

The country’s Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, confirmed on Thursday that a group of high-net-worth individuals had been given permission to travel to Fiji.

Speaking during a national budget consultation, Sayed-Khaiyum said that around 30 individuals from “a very well-known company” would soon arrive in the country by private aircraft, before taking a seaplane to their final destination, where they would stay for three months.

“From our perspective, this is a balancing between managing our health risks and also opening up the economic pathways; it’s critically important to do that,” the Attorney General added.

Fiji has also started an initiative called “Blue Lanes” to welcome tourists arriving by yacht.

Sayed-Khaiyum said that travelers could serve their 14-day quarantine period on board their private vessels prior to arrival or docked in Fiji. They would then be free to “roam around” the country after a negative Covid-19 test result.

He added that Fiji would also welcome movie and television crews as long as they followed quarantine measures.

Last week, the Fijian PM announced that the country was working on a travel arrangement called the Bula Bubble between itself, New Zealand and Australia.

The Australian and New Zealand prime ministers have yet to comment on the proposal, which is named after the Fijian greeting for hello or welcome.

CNN’s Lilit Marcus contributed to this report.

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‘They’re trying to contradict how he lived’

In an interview last year, the actor’s son, Ethan Wayne, said his dad’s words in the Playboy Q&A were being taken out of context and that his father “took everyone at face value.”

“It would be an injustice to judge someone based on an interview that’s being used out of context,” he said. “They’re trying to contradict how he lived his life, and how he lived his life was who he was. So any discussion of removing his name from the airport should include the full picture of the life of John Wayne and not be based on a single outlier interview from half a century ago.”

State Sen. Tom Umberg, also a Democrat, wrote an op-ed published Saturday in The Orange County Register explaining his view that erecting statues and christening buildings should be reserved for those who reflect the county’s values. That won’t be the case, he wrote, for a child who today Googles the actor whose career spanned more than five decades.

“What they’ll discover is that John Wayne died 41 years ago and was an actor who was most famous for his roles in Westerns and war movies, although in real life he was never a cowboy nor served in uniform,” the lawmaker wrote.

“Among other disturbing facts, she will also discover that he was a self-proclaimed white supremacist.”

Umberg proffered other Orange County luminaries for whom the airport could be named, including Medal of Honor recipients Walter Ehlers, Mike Monsoor and Tibor Rubin. Ehlers stormed the beach on D-Day, Monsoor died in Iraq protecting his fellow Navy SEALS from a grenade blast and Rubin survived the Holocaust and more than two years as a prisoner of war during the Korean War.

‘I believe in white supremacy…’

Wayne’s oeuvre included more than 150 feature-length films, including “Sands of Iwo Jima,” for which he earned an Oscar nomination for best actor, and “True Grit,” for which he took a little golden guy home. He died in 1979 in Los Angeles at age 72..

Though the county Democrats’ resolution cites two direct quotes from the Playboy article, there are numerous instances in which Wayne made bigoted remarks:

• In discussing the revocation of activist Angela Davis’ teaching credentials, Wayne said, “We can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.”
• Asked about Native Americans playing subordinate roles in his movies, he replied, “I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them, if that’s what you’re asking. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
• When the interviewer requests an example of movies he finds perverted, Wayne singles out Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight’s characters in “Midnight Cowboy,” which won three Oscars: “Wouldn’t you say that the wonderful love of those two men in ‘Midnight Cowboy,’ a story about two f*gs, qualifies? But don’t get me wrong. As far as a man and a woman is concerned, I’m awfully happy there’s a thing called sex.”
• On the matter of education in the African American community, he said, “Some blacks have tried to force the issue and enter college when they haven’t passed the tests and don’t have the requisite background. … I don’t know why people insist that blacks have been forbidden their right to go to school. They were allowed in public schools wherever I’ve been.”
• Again on education, he said, “I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves. Now, I’m not condoning slavery. It’s just a fact of life, like the kid who gets infantile paralysis and has to wear braces so he can’t play football with the rest of us. I will say this, though: I think any black who can compete with a white today can get a better break than a white man.”
• On casting Black actors, Wayne opined, “If it’s supposed to be a black character, naturally I use a black actor, but I don’t go so far as hunting for positions for them. I think the Hollywood studios are carrying their tokenism a little too far. There’s no doubt that 10 percent of the population is black, or colored, or whatever they want to call themselves; they certainly aren’t Caucasian. Anyway, I suppose there should be the same percentage of the colored race in films as in society, but it can’t always be that way.”

Airport opened in 1923

CNN could not immediately reach Michelle Steel, the Republican chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, or Fred Whitaker, chairman of the Orange County Republicans. Calls to Chapman University academics Fred Smoller and Michael Moodian, who helped craft the Democrats’ resolution, were not immediately returned.

Aviation pioneer Eddie Martin opened the airport, located south of Los Angeles, in 1923 and opened a flight school and eponymous aviation company there. Orange County acquired it in 1939.

The county Board of Supervisors renamed Orange County Airport to John Wayne Airport in 1979, calling the actor a “man of humility, of honesty, and a hero of the American West (who) was a symbol to the world of the traditional American values.”

The same year, The John Wayne Associates commissioned sculptor Robert Summers to create a 9-foot statue of The Duke, in cowboy garb, sauntering atop a marble pedestal. The statue was finished in 1982 and later placed in the lobby of the Thomas F. Riley Terminal, named for a Marines brigadier general who went on to serve as an Orange County supervisor.

In addition to the statue, the airport’s gift shops celebrate the actor with T-shirts, shot glasses and other knickknacks bearing Wayne’s image.

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